In the Country of Men

Hisham Matar

Sep 2007 · Penguin Canada

About this ebook

On a white-hot day in Tripoli, Libya, in the summer of 1979, 9-year-old Suleiman is shopping in the market square with his mother. His father is away on business—except that Suleiman is sure he has just seen him, standing across the street wearing a pair of dark glasses. But why doesn’t he come over when he knows Suleiman’s mother is falling apart? Whispers intensify around Suleiman as his friend’s father disappears and his mother frantically burns his father’s books. As Suleiman begins to wonder whether his father has gone for good, it feels as if the walls of his home will break with the secrets held within.

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About the author

Born in New York City to Libyan parents, HISHAM MATAR spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived most of his adult life in London. His debut novel, In the Country of Men, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won numerous international prizes, including the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, a Commonwealth First Book Award, the Premio Flaiano, and the Premio Gregor von Rezzori. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, published in 2011, was named one of the best books of the year by The Guardian and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been translated into twenty-nine languages. He lives in London and New York.