Khaled Alesmael

Khaled Alesmael went from Syria to Cairo to Istanbul to Gothenburg to London — and turned the whole wild journey into books. Stuck waiting in an asylum house in Sweden? He turned it into a writer's residency instead and came out the other side with two debut novels, Selamlik and Work Beds — now translated into multiple languages. Won several prizes. He studied English lit at Damascus University 2006 and currently calls London home.