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In the Country of Men

by Hisham Matar

3.53 · rating details · 1,091 ratings · 245 reviews

Libya, 1979. Nine-year-old Suleiman’s days are circumscribed by the narrow rituals of childhood: outings to the ruins surrounding Tripoli, games with friends played under the burning sun, exotic gifts from his father’s constant business trips abroad. But his nights have come to revolve around his mother’s increasingly disturbing bedside stories full of old family bittern...more

Hardcover, 246 pages

Published January 30th 2007 by The Dial Press (first published January 1st 2006)

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Aug 13, 2009

okyrhoe rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing, libya, north-africa

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The child narrator’s point of view is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s as if the boy’s view of the world is warped by the surface of the water. Actually, Suleiman isn’t a particularly likeable character. On the contrary, the reader is discouraged from identifying with the first person narrator, for he recounts episodes of his boyhood in which he indulges in inexplicable cruel behavior which contrasts sharply with the boy's childish innocence in the face of evil and deceit.

While the...moreThe child narrator’s point of view is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s as if the boy’s view of the world is warped by the surface of the water. Actually, Suleiman isn’t a particularly likeable character. On the contrary, the reader is discouraged from identifying with the first person narrator, for he recounts episodes of his boyhood in which he indulges in inexplicable cruel behavior which contrasts sharply with the boy's childish innocence in the face of evil and deceit.

While the book’s language is pretty much straightforward and uncomplicated, to the point that at first I thought this wasn’t going to be worth my while, as I read on, became engrossed by the subversive elements of the plot, and the constant interplay of the two temporal pasts of the narrative (Najwa-the mother’s past vs. Suleiman-the boy’s past).

In the Country of Men has been criticized by Arab commentators for being politically vague, for depicting the opposition to the Libyan regime as a slipshod endeavor, in effect caricaturing the resistance movement. IMO this is what gives the book its humanity and poignancy.
The novel's primary critique of contemporary Arab society is that this country of ‘men’ no longer operates according to ‘manly’ codes of conduct. All sense of justice, faith, honor, respect seems to have decayed.
This can be seen in the juxtaposition between the strict moral codes women must still adhere to, a seemingly anachronistic tradition that persists in a society whose ruling regime loudly proclaims a total break with the past, the ushering in of the ‘modern’, the ‘revolutionary’, etc.
We observe that the most devout adherents of The Guide are men who unashamedly forego ideological principles when it is convenient for themselves or for their superiors: Um Masood can be bribed by a cake topped with strawberries; the secret police try to score with Suleiman’s mother in exchange for overlooking the ‘shame’ of her drinking binges.
And despite all the macho talk of capturing the ‘traitors’, the pistol-toting Sharief promptly abandons his idealistic mission when the ‘mighty hand’ decides to spare Suleiman’s father.
However, the opposition isn't any better. Najwa’s brother, despite an American wife and a comfortable life abroad, reverts to the old ways when it comes to dealing with the matter of the family’s honour being compromised by the young girl.
Faraj (Suleiman’s father), who is apparently one of the main financial benefactors of the opposition, has married an underage girl he has never seen before and even went so far as to deflower her as she lay unconscious with fear on her wedding night in accordance with tradition.
Who better, then, to understand the futility of the 'resistance' than Najwa, (Suleiman’s mother). As a woman, as a victim of patriarchal status quo, she is aware that her husband’s struggle with the totalitarian regime is a futile battle. The system cannot be overcome when the men fighting it are themselves oppressors. And this is what In the Country of Men illustrates, by intertwining the two narratives: the subjugation of Najwa to the rule of men, and the subjugation of Faraj to the rule of the regime.
Najwa’s adolescent ‘crime’ is that she was found talking to a boy in a public café. The ‘High Council’ of male family elders acted with the ‘efficiency rivaling that of a German factory’ in meting out the punishment after a closed ‘trial’ in which she is not allowed to come to her own defense. Her sentence begins with incarceration, beatings, a forced marriage, denial of access to books, and concludes with the rape on her wedding night. She remembers: “When I got home every light in my life was put out.”
Years later, her husband’s fate echoes her own oppression. At the moment of Faraj’s arrest she immediately understands the enormity of his predicament: the possibility of being placed ‘behind the sun for ever’.
His capture by the Revolutionary Committee men is followed by events paralleling her own submission: a mock trial, incarceration, beatings, forced confession, forced pledge of loyalty, deprived of his books, release.
The ironic twist in this role reversal is that it is the woman who now holds the trump card --> She makes the morally superior choice to save him at all costs whereas no man or woman (not even her own mother) was willing to rescue/protect her. In the country of men, it is the woman who saves the day, overcoming the ‘cowardly’ stance of the Scheherazades past and present - idealists/fantasists who choose slavery over risking all for freedom.
Najwa negotiates with her neighbor Ustath Jafer the until then much feared highranking Mokhabarat official and pledges obedience to the regime on behalf of her husband, as she had once given her own wedding pledge to him in order to ‘save’ her family’s honor: ‘A word had been given and word had been received, men’s words that could never be taken back or exchanged.’
Finally, I want to point out the crowning ironic symbol: The white handkerchief, a testament of Najwa's virgin ‘honor’ upon her bridal bed, becomes the white sheet on the mirror protecting the ‘violated’ husband from his own reflected image upon his return home a badly bruised and broken man.(less)

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Sep 07, 2010

Sue rated it

Shelves: fiction-foreign-places

From my blog:
written by Hisham Matar and published in February 2007 by The Dial Press. This is Matar's bio as written on the end flap:

Hisham Matar was born in 1970 in New York city to Libyan parents and spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo. He lives in London and is currently at work on his second novel. In the Country of Men will be published in twenty-two languages.

This was a difficult book to read, not because of the density of the writing - dense it was not...moreFrom my blog:
written by Hisham Matar and published in February 2007 by The Dial Press. This is Matar's bio as written on the end flap:

Hisham Matar was born in 1970 in New York city to Libyan parents and spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo. He lives in London and is currently at work on his second novel. In the Country of Men will be published in twenty-two languages.

This was a difficult book to read, not because of the density of the writing - dense it was not - but because the characters drew you into their lives in such a way that you wanted to, but couldn't, dialog with them. The story is told through the eyes and voice of a 9-year-old boy, Suleiman, as he describes how he sees what's happening to his family - his mother, his father, and his uncle - and their immediate friends and relatives in Libya in 1979.

The story is tragic in many ways, but life is life and tragedy is part of it. You have to take it as it is because it's the only way to get to know, appreciate, and respect those whose lives are different from our own.

Just the other evening, a group of us were talking about what we perceived as the tragic lives of an elderly couple we all know, a couple who never has enough money to buy healthy food or clothing and who lives in substandard housing. Yet, you can't go in and fix the situation, or even try, unless you're asked, because the damage to human dignity, when you try to make a "happily ever after," according to our own individual standards, is often more damaging than the "tragic" circumstances themselves.

Thus is was with this book. I kept wanting to "explain things" to this little boy, to tell him to grow up and learn what it means to keep a secret, to trust his family, even though it seemed that all the world was falling apart. So much I wanted to tell him. I wanted to hold him in my arms with my hands close to his mouth to keep him quiet, perhaps in the way you might do with a small child. I wanted Suleiman to be more mature than he was, and I wondered why he wasn't. I wanted to tell his mother that she needed to help him grow up by explaining more than she did. The book made me want to get involved and "fix things."

But this was Suleiman's life, his mother's life, his father's life, his uncle's life, and the lives of their friends and relatives, and I could only observe. It's better that way. We can't rule the universe; and even if we could, our disasters might be worse than the real ones we perceive.

The book was disturbing, but I'm glad I read it. The story will stay with me for a long time. I'm glad Hisham Matar told the story in a way I could read and feel it. I am better, even though sadder, for having experienced a bit of Suleiman's life. Like the rest of us who survive childhood - and Suleiman did, we go on and we make of our lives what we can, the best we can. I hope he is doing well!
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Apr 28, 2011

ala' rated it

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شاعرية جدا ، رغم جوها الكئيب ، كرهت المؤلف في لحظات معينة ، لأنه استدرج براءة الاطفال إلى عالم السياسة .. مشهد اعدام رشيد كان مؤلما جدا بالنسبة لي ، و همجيا جدا .. وددت لو أعرف ليبيا واحدا لأستفسر منه عن حقيقة الأمر .. - لكن لن أستغرب ما قرأت ما دام القذافي يحكمهم - ..
أحببت شاعريتها جدا ..
أحببت نجوى جدا .. جعلتني أستحضر نجوى منيف وجبرا في عالم بلا خرائط لا أعلم لماذا ، ربما هذا الجنون العشقي - لكنها مختلفة .. هي أيضا رضيت العبودية وآثرتها على الموت ..
----
جذبتني في الكتاب مقا...more

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Aug 15, 2007

Felis rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-anglo-africa

...’Did you know how hard the angels worked and how they risked everything to give us mulberries?’ I said to make her better, to make her cheeck rosy again. ‘And all because they knew how hard life was going to be for us here on earth. I wish you were there with me, to taste them. You know how you say that everything we know will be more beautiful in Paradise? Well, everything except mulberries, they taste as good here, they are the angels’ way to make us patient. I think they are the only thing...more

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Apr 13, 2010

yamami rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

تدور أحداث الرواية في ظلال الثورة الليبية لـ معمّر القذافي D :
بـ عقلٍ سئوول وعينيّ طفلٍ في التاسعة من عمره تتكشف صفحات الأحداث شيئاً فشيئا ..
حملة الاعتقالات التي طالت أولئك الذين يرفضون الثورة الليبية ويُطالبون بالديموقراطية ، ثم حبل المشنقة الذي بدوره يتكفل بـ قطف الرؤوس !..
الرواية مُتخمة بالتفاصيل والأحاسيس الإنسانية البحتة .
القلق ، الخوف ، الترقب ، الانتظار ، النزاع الذي يعتمل في النفس البشرية ، والكثير الكثير ..
لغة الكاتب جميلة ، راقني اسلوبه السردي ..
يع...more

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Sep 11, 2007

Geoff rated it

Suleiman is a nine year old in Qaddafi's post-coup Libya. His mother is a neurotic closet alcoholic and his somewhat absentee father is a quasi counter-revolutionary. Suleiman struggles to reconcile the half-truths and "better left unsaids" from his parents' relationship and his own friendships.

Suleiman copes through the family dynamic with confusion, anger, bitterness, and meanness. By the end of the book, Suleiman is 24 years old and has no better grasp on his life tha...more

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Jun 22, 2010

Nojood rated it

Shelves: fiction, english-books

It is nice to read this book in Arabic but if you can, read it in the language it was written in originaly; English. Reading the book in English gave it one more star. What amazes me is the development of the 9 year old character that took place in a small number of days. His adoration, love-hate and pitty relationship with his parents, especially his mom, is portrayed in a wonderful way. The struggle of the child between admiring the enemy and disliking him, at the same time, is shown in th...more

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Jun 19, 2007

peter rated it

Not bad -- similar in subject but a hell of a lot better than that contrived, unconvincing best selling rubbish, The Kite Runner. It's a story about a boy growing in Libya in the midst of feeble efforts to mount political opposition to the regime. As his father and friends attempt to meet, read "subversive" literature about democracy, and so forth, his mother, forced early into an arid marriage drinks illegally and self-demeaningly, and the boy learns some of the debased, treacherous w...more

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Oct 26, 2011

Marcy rated it

The young son of two parents witnesses the abduction and public hanging of his next door neighbor, the father of his best friend. He also witnesses the arrest of his father. Both men were found to be treasonous against a regime of terror, the regime of Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Suleiman spent days and nights, comforting his mother, and hating his mother, for the illness that took her over when her husband was not home. This illness, the reader soon discovers, is alcoholism. It is in this st...moreThe young son of two parents witnesses the abduction and public hanging of his next door neighbor, the father of his best friend. He also witnesses the arrest of his father. Both men were found to be treasonous against a regime of terror, the regime of Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Suleiman spent days and nights, comforting his mother, and hating his mother, for the illness that took her over when her husband was not home. This illness, the reader soon discovers, is alcoholism. It is in this state that Suleiman learns about the "prison" his mother lived in before she was married. Under the influence of alcohol, Suleiman's mom reveals the secrets of her life to him at night. She was whipped by her father for having cappucino with a young man and kept in her room without books for a month. Her father married her off to a man she did not know or love. She had one child she tried desperately not to have. Is it a wonder that Suleiman wanted to protect his mother, and at the same time, run away from her?

Suleiman is forced to become a man before his age, but in doing so, he pays a high price. He is angry; he takes out his anger on his best friend, his mother, and others. He makes it clear he is too young to face his mother's illness, the terror that runs through his neighborhood, the abduction of his father, and the beaten up "monster" who is released and comes home.

While Suleiman's mother and father rebuild their lives with love, he is left with the crosses of the past to bear. His own anger will not permit him to feel emotions. There is Suleiman's constant mention of the blinding sun that leaves the land white with shadows of people upon it. When we read about political brutality, we most often read about it from the perspectives of adults. This story is told from the perspective of a child, a child who is trying to figure out the meaning of betrayal, good, and evil. As he tries to sort out the nightmare that envelops him, Suleiman acts upon his own goodness and evil throughout the story.

This was troubling to read, an emotional experience that would not allow me to fall asleep some nights. (less)

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Aug 25, 2011

David Hebblethwaite rated it

Suleiman is nine years old in 1979, when he gains the first hint that there’s more to his father Faraj’s life than he had thought; the boy believes his father to be away on business, but instead sees Faraj in Triploi, entering an unfamiliar building in Martyrs’ Square. In the months that follow, Faraj’s political activities bring him increasingly to the attention of the secret police, but the young Suleiman has little understanding of what is happening to his family.

The ‘country of men...more

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May 31, 2011

Hind rated it

Distractingly, I kept wondering whether this book was (semi)autobiographical. The author's father was "disappeared" in Cairo in the late 1970s and hasn't been heard from since. He could be long-dead or he could still be alive in one of Gaddafi's far-flung jails. Matar's paternal uncle had been imprisoned by Gaddafi for nearly 2 decades, before he was released sometime in the 1990s. So the whole time I was reading this book, I wondered how much of Hisham Matar is in young Suleiman?
...more

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May 22, 2011

Carl rated it

A weak 4 stars. A Booker nominee, it didn’t get farther, I’d guess, due to the narrative being straightforward and not incomprehensibly abstruse.
Unlike many child narrator/protagonists, Suleiman was neither precocious nor adorable, but I think for the most part he worked as a window to the themes of the book: how people had to live under the brutal dictatorship of Qaddafi, how people respond to threats and torture, and how families work (or not) under such conditions. The minor moral ...more

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Apr 11, 2011

Vera Marie rated it

It has been difficult for me to comprehend the arrogant statements of the dictator of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. When he asserts, “The people LOVE me!” in the face of thousands of ill-armed, desperate rebels trying to depose him, I think he must be out of touch with reality.

Then I read In the Country of Men and I understood a little better. The novel, written by an ex-pat Libyan, Hisham Matar , tells the horrific story of people who live under conditions similar to Stalinist Russia. In pu...more

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Jan 20, 2011

Beatles24 rated it

An unbelievable debut on the literary scene. It is an emotion filled book centered around the life of a 9 year old boy whose life is twisted and strewn around (and miraculously picked back up) by the vagaries of a politico-social system invented by Libya's long standing mad government. The Guide, as the decrepit Muammar al-Gadaffi is known, insinuates his sordid network of operatives into the life of young Suleiman's family and summarily executes, jails, and mentally maims in shocking ways. T...more

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Sep 11, 2011

Asya Fergiani rated it

This is the story of a child’s view of living in the repressive Libyan society under the control of the tyrannical dictator, Moammar Ghadhaffi. This book took great courage to write being that at the time of its publication many still lived under the fear driven constraints of a society shackled by an all hope consuming brutality. It very well could have put him and his family at risk. At the date of this review most of Libya has been liberated by its own citizens ousting their long term tormen...more

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Aug 02, 2011

Samar rated it

Sadly, a quote from Francis Bacon comes to mind, that some books should only be sampled or some such thing. This book was quite dull. I started it with great expectations; it was the first novel I had read by a Libyan writer and with Libya constantly in the news, I thought its moment had come. It is also a book narrated from the perspective of a nine-year-old boy, and I was looking forward to some innocence, humour and charm. There was not much of that- the boy seemed at once too mature and too ...moreSadly, a quote from Francis Bacon comes to mind, that some books should only be sampled or some such thing. This book was quite dull. I started it with great expectations; it was the first novel I had read by a Libyan writer and with Libya constantly in the news, I thought its moment had come. It is also a book narrated from the perspective of a nine-year-old boy, and I was looking forward to some innocence, humour and charm. There was not much of that- the boy seemed at once too mature and too clueless. Though not a translated work, the book uses language in a vapid, unimaginative manner. Again, we seem to have the usual genre coming out of the Middle East- sociology and political studies posing as literature. They don't make for good bedfellows, in my opinion, or at least not the way it's done in the Arab world. Perhaps the socio/political issues are so pressing and so current that writers cannot devote themselves to exploring the issues normally explored in the novel- by the time the writers are done with conveying what they perceive as the necessary information- of repression, brutality, torture, religion, and exile, there is not much time left for anything else.
To be fair to the book, there were a few touches I liked. The fact that Suleiman (the nine-year-old) betrays his father and his best friend (though does not do serious damage to his father) is insightful. Is this the nature of such repressive regimes- that even innocent children end up betraying those they love most, as- at some unconscious level perhaps- they understand that it is the easier option. Another theme I thought was dealt with well was that of exile- Suleiman ends up forced into exile by his parents, and while he has no desire to return to his homeland, he resents his parents for depriving him of his homeland, no matter the reasons. And the irony is that for his parents, sending the son to Egypt was the ultimate sacricife they had to make to guarantee his safety, and yet the son, though understanding this, does not feel any more compassion towards them. Suleiman himself is caught in a cycle of safety and emptiness from which he can never be delivered.
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Feb 01, 2011

Bookguide rated it

Recommended to Bookguide by: LenaLena

In Dutch, 'Niemandsland' with a different cover, www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6943123. Won as 2nd prize in a BC lottery.

Interesting story of how the choices made by his parents affect a nine-year-old boy in Gaddafi's Libya. Although it is set in Libya, there is not much local colour; it is more about the relationships within the family. Without explaining to his son, Suleiman's father is involved in subversive activities against the regime. Meanwhile Suleiman is left to his own devices...more

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Feb 08, 2012

Rula Bilbeisi rated it

In The Country of Men

“Have no cause to fear, only the guilty live in fear.”

That was not the case with Suleiman, the nine-year-old boy. Fear was in the air surrounding him. Fear for his alcoholic mother who he thought needs his protection, fear for his father, the foolish dreamer, who disappeared on long business trips, this fear that seemed to absorb him and turned into panic attacks that transformed a happy child into an angry frustrated kid, whose anger came lashing out...more

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Jan 18, 2009

Serene rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

Short-listed for both the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the Guardian First Book Award, Hisham Matar's novel, widely published, raises comparisons to Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner (***1/2 Sept/Oct 2003). Critics agree that Matar's poetic, visual prose reflects a skill and maturity often lacking in first novels. Of the two points of view which Matar employs, the perspective of the young child narrator is effective and at times even chilling, as the baffled and terrorized Suleiman attem

...more

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Dec 05, 2009

Laura rated it

In the Country of Men tells the fate of a group of pro-democracy dissidents under the rule of Qaddafi and his Cultural Revolution in Libya in 1979. More than a political novel, however, the story is really about the family relationships between the narrator (who tells the story from his point of view as a 9 year old) and his parents, particularly his mother, that play out against the background of a harsh and repressive political regime. There were some similarities between this story and "...more

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Oct 13, 2009

Katie Lynn rated it

Best part:

"I suffer an absence, an ever-present absence, like an orphan not entirely certain of what he has missed or gained through his unchosen loss. I am both repulsed and surprised, for example, by my exaggerated sentiment when parting with people I am not intimate with, promising impossible reunions. Egypt has not replaced Libya. Instead, there is this void, this emptiness I am trying to get at like someone frightened of the dark, searching for a match to strike. I see it i...more

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May 13, 2008

Jenny.p rated it

Shelves: book-club-books

The plot was predictable, and when not predicable, unlikely. There is not one strong character that I felt attached to. It drove me crazy that there is little to no historically orienting information to help the reader grasp the plot. It is important, painful subject-matter to tackle, but this fact alone doesn't make the book substantive. Disappointing.

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Aug 07, 2011

Anita rated it

Gaddafi's Libyan bloodless 1969 coup means that you are either with him or against him. There are no areas of gray. There is no freedom of expression and people are forced to hang the hated Gaddafi's picture in their homes, as an homage to him. Books are burned because they are evidence of dissent; men are violently taken from their homes and either killed or maimed. The women wait and suffer their own 'illnesses,' while their husbands are gone; their families ripped into fearful misundersta...more

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Nov 05, 2010

Myself rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: my-favorite

أحببته باللغة العربية، رغم محاولتي العقيمة لقراءته بالانجليزية .شعرت بعروبته بطعم المعاني التي لا أعرف لها فهماً إلا بالعربية

في بلاد الرجال
قصة حلم بالجنة، وورق توت
قصة بعد جميل وأحلام وردية يحلمها حين يبعد عن أبيه، وقرب يجفله ويكرهه لحقيقة برودة ذلك القرب
قصته مع أم كان هو أميرها الصغير
قصة استيعاب طفل لعالم لايتكلم إلا بالألغاز

يجب أن تقتنى

من الكتاب
" أتعرفين ماما كم بذلت الملائكة من جهد، وكيف خاطرت بكل شيء لتمنحنا التوت
وكل ذلك لأنها ...more

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Nov 23, 2008

Jessica rated it

Shelves: library-book, fiction, libya

In the Country of Men takes place in Libya, in the 1970's. This is a time and place that I know very little about, but the scope of this novel is not very wide, and the narrator gives a full picture of his world. The narrator is nine-year-old Suleiman, describing the summer when his father's rejection of ruling government brings his family much pain. Suleiman understands very little of what is going on, and so as a reader who does not know very much about this time period, I also did not underst...more

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Jul 19, 2011

Lucinda rated it

So this is the latest in a string of books I have read recently where the story is told from the perspective of a child (though somewhat confusingly, this is told back by an adult about a period in his childhood). At first I was totally impressed with this device for telling a story in a new and interesting way, but now it is starting to feel old.
This is a heartbreaking story with some really powerful and painful segments in the retelling of a young boy (only 9 years old) who experiences ...moreSo this is the latest in a string of books I have read recently where the story is told from the perspective of a child (though somewhat confusingly, this is told back by an adult about a period in his childhood). At first I was totally impressed with this device for telling a story in a new and interesting way, but now it is starting to feel old.
This is a heartbreaking story with some really powerful and painful segments in the retelling of a young boy (only 9 years old) who experiences the madness of Qaddafi's regime 10 years after his removal of King Idris in 1969. The revolutionary rhetoric is getting old and pockets of resistance and rebellion bubble up, only to be dealt with ruthlessly and brutally. Suleiman's father is one in a small group calling for democratic reforms. The story follows Suleiman's attempt to comprehend what is going on from the point where one of his father's group is taken into custody with Qaddafi's men attempting to grab his father as well.
Suleiman doesn't really question the rhetoric of the regime, like most children his understanding of good and bad in people is connected to his instinctive reactions when he interacts with them. Much of what is going on with his father is kept from him, and so we experience his intense frustration in trying to understand the behaviour of the adults around him. In particular Suleiman is dragged into the whirlpool of emotions that his mother is dealing with, in her attempts to make things happen or not happen. Having been given away in marriage at a young age (cringe here for the trope of oppressed women in the middle east) she tells her son the stories of Scheherazade. when her son says he thinks Scheherazade a hero for her ability to prevent her impending doom the mother replies that Scheherazade was a coward who accepted slavery over death. These words come back throughout the book as the events unfold.
Matar's prose perfectly suits the feel of the story as it occurs in a series of slow days endured in Libyan heat and stands in stark contrast to the violence, urgency and life and death quality of the events which are occurring just beyond the scope of Suleiman's awareness.

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Nov 25, 2008

Liz rated it

Recommends it for: not sure

So,I purchased this book thinking it was the Cormac McCarthy book, No Country for Old Men. It's not. It turns out to be another in the series of books I have been reading where children are the protagonists and are not very likable characters. The story takes place in Libya, under the terrorist regime of Qaddafi. Horrible things take place to the adults in this story, and the protagonist, a child of 9, acts selfishly and unconscientiously (is that a word?) towards his parents and his friend...more

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Apr 20, 2010

Suzy rated it

This book is rather like Kite Runner. It is set in Libya in the 70's and focuses on a boy's life, made unhappy by his oppressed and emotionally unbalanced mother and the dangerous anti-revolutionary secrets surrounding the men in his family. The boy is unmoored, and, as in the Kite Runner, takes it out on a friend, as well as an innocent. In the Country of Men is a quick read and quite readable, but it is not as plot driven as Kite Runner, which is a real page-turner. In the Country of Men i...more

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Mar 25, 2010

Vikas rated it

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Shelves: man-booker

In the country of men, is a story told as seen through the eyes of nine year old Suleiman. I always feel that such narration (as seen by kids) gives the author power to build innocent situations. I am particularly fond of such stories; two of them which immediately come to mind are ‘Carry me down’ and ‘Vernon god little’.
The story is based in Libya during the time of revolution and emergence of Gadaffi as the leader of the country, employing brutal methods.
Suleiman thinks that his f...moreIn the country of men, is a story told as seen through the eyes of nine year old Suleiman. I always feel that such narration (as seen by kids) gives the author power to build innocent situations. I am particularly fond of such stories; two of them which immediately come to mind are ‘Carry me down’ and ‘Vernon god little’.
The story is based in Libya during the time of revolution and emergence of Gadaffi as the leader of the country, employing brutal methods.
Suleiman thinks that his father is out on business trips but that is not the fact every time. His father is a person with different dreams for Libya and is out on clandestine activities against the emerging power of council committee. The mother in the absence of his father drinks heavily (banned in Libya at that time not sure about present) and Suleiman thinks that his mother is sick and he takes liquor for her medicine. In her inebriated state she narrates her stories from past, the stories of her suffering that are incomprehensible to Suleiman. The blabber of her mother in her intoxicated state is misjudged by her son as symptom of illness. Mom drinking and the kid thinking that mom is taking medicine; this kind of innocence can only be infused in abundance when author sees the world through a child.
The fight between Suleiman and Kareem, where Suleiman for no reason known to him accuses Kareem as son of a traitor, is very touching. Sometime as kid you never know why you behave in certain way but you do it.
The author has truly depicted the Libyan circumstances during the time of revolution through this fiction. The suffering of people as a result of brutal means employed by Gadaffi regime,are heartfelt. The realism of the novel is remarkable.
The novel lacks on the tension which it could have gone to build based on the plot but some how it fails to build the tension to such a level that the reader gets jittery and hooked to the book. It seems that tension is lurking at the end of lines somwhere but as a reader you never feel it in your nerves.
Overall, a satisfying read with a nice plot.
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About Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar was born in New York City. He spent his childhood in America with his Libyan parents while his father was working for the Libyan delegation to the United Nations. When he was three years old, his family went back to Tripoli, Libya, where he spent his early childhood. Due to political persecutions by the Gaddafi regime, in 1979 his father was accused of being a reactionary to the Libya...more

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Quotes from In the Country of Men

“Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.” — 10 people liked it

“وفي بعض الصباحات الشتوية عندما تلتحف السماء بظلمة عنيدة، كنت أتسلل إلى سريرها البديل وأنا بكامل ملابسي المدرسية، ثم أتقوقع في التجويف الذي خلّفته في الملاءات وأتساءل وربطة عنقي تضغط على رقبتي، والدفء يسري في خدي من وسادتها، كيف للفردوس أن يكون شيئاً مختلفاً عن هذا؟” — 5 people liked it

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