The PEN/Heim Judges’ Citation:

Hajar Hussaini’s translation of Khosraw Mani’s 2017 Farsi-language novel  Death and his Brother could not come at a more important time, as freedoms continue to be rolled back in Afghanistan by the Taliban, and not just for women. Neither this book nor any of Khosraw Mani’s five other novels have been translated into English, which makes Hussaini’s translation even more welcome. The novel depicts a single day in the lives of a few ordinary Kabul inhabitants. It starts off with a young man quietly sitting in a café in the Afghan capital; when a missile hits a house and kills four people, the reader sees how their worlds interconnect and how life can sometimes be deadlier than death itself. Told from multiple perspectives, this tragic story becomes one extended wail reminiscent of a Greek chorus. Experimental and daring, this is a book that everyone will enjoy, regardless of age or background. And rarely of late have we had a text from Persian so skillfully translated and which conveys the beauty of the original text in English. An important voice from a part of the world that Americans know very little about, apart from State Department-released stereotypes and racist tropes.