The Return by Hysham Matar - 5 stars

[Sushicat]

At the center of this memoir is the absence of Hisham Matar's father, a leader of opposition to Gaddafi's regime, who had to move his family into exile and was abducted from the streets of Cairo and brought back to his native Libya to be held captive for years in the country's most notorious prison and to finally disappear. The hole this abduction left and the uncertainty of his fate had profound impact on the lives of the author and his family.

During the Arabian Spring, a short time when a bright future seemed possible for his native country, Hisham Matar returned to Libya to try and find traces of his father and to reconnect with other members of his family, many of whom had recently been set free after long captivity. This journey home triggers reflections on the history and culture of Libya, the realities of life under an arbitrary regime that suppressed not only political but also cultural development, as well as introspection on the many ways a life in exile and the long reach of the oppressive regime affect the spirit.