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The Return

Hisham Matar

Start date: May 17, 2017

Finish date: June 17, 2017

Discussion: LIBYA: The Return

Why we're reading this: Our choice for Libya is The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between.

When he was twelve, the author…more
[close] Our choice for Libya is The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between.

When he was twelve, the author Matar and his family went into political exile. Eight years later Matar's father, a former diplomat and military man turned brave political dissident, was kidnapped from the streets of Cairo by the Libyan government and is believed to have been held in the regime's most notorious prison. Now, the prisons are empty and little hope remains that Jaballa Matar will be found alive. Yet, as the author writes, hope is "persistent and cunning".

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LIBYA: The Return

As You Read - What are you thinking about the book?
By Cait · 13 posts · 3 views

last updated Jun 21, 2017 11:52AM

What Members Thought

Jun 17, 2017 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

Shelves: middle-east, colonialism, around-the-world, africa, favorites, memoirs, pulitzers

The Return is the best book I’ve read so far this year. It is a beautifully written memoir (which won the Pulitzer for biography/autobiography) of a Libyan man who spends many years investigating his father’s disappearance during the Qaddafi regime. The book reflects Matar’s love of his country, the struggles of having to live in exile (including an assassination attempt against his brother as the child of a well-known revolutionary), the different kinds of sacrifices made during the revolution ...more

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Jun 21, 2017 Becki Iverson rated it it was amazing

This book was so incredibly informational. I didn't realize how little I knew about Libyan history until I picked it up, and it's a fascinating story. Hisham's story of his search for his father is devastating and presumably unending, but through his grief he has managed to create a gorgeous testimony to the value of Libya, of the reason to fight for your freedom, and the ideal that sacrifice is worth it if the end goal benefits everyone. If you're wondering why Qaddafi had to go and where we ca ...more

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