BOTM April 2024 - The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between

[Celia]

The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between is a memoir by Hisham Matar that was first published in June 2016. The memoir centers on Matar's return to his native Libya in 2012 to search for the truth behind the 1990 disappearance of his father, a prominent political dissident of the Gaddafi regime. It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the inaugural 2017 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the 2017 Folio Prize, becoming the first nonfiction book to do so.

In 1990, Hisham Matar's father, a prominent critic of Muammar Gaddafi's dictatorship, was kidnapped by Gaddafi's agents and imprisoned in Libya. Matar never saw his father after that. The memoir follows Matar's return to Libya in 2012, following Gaddafi's death, to find out what happened to his father.

From wikipedia.com

[Rosemarie]

I'll be interested to read everyone's comments on the book, since I quit reading after a few chapters. I'm sure the second part is probably better, but it wasn't what I thought it would be.

[K]

I just finished it and found it well-written and informative. It made the political personal as he explained how a dictatorship destroys family closeness.

[Gail]

This book is both a memoir of the author's search for his father who had been kidnapped by Qaddafi, but also a careful look at the politics surrounding Libya's historical revolutions, and finally how one grieves when one can not be sure of the death of the person you mourn. I found the chronology to be very confusing as the author makes assumptions about the reader knowing when certain events have happened. Although he gives you the correct clues as he jumps around, I didn't always get the clues. Once again, as I read the world's literature, I learned a great deal about a country I mostly knew nothing about.

[Celia]

What do you think Rosemarie?

[Rosemarie]

I couldn't finish it, in fact, I only read a couple of chapters and was tired about hearing all their wealth and luxurious lifestyle before it all happened. I was interested in what happened to his father, but just couldn't read it. It wasn't at all what I expected!

[Celia]

Thanks for your comments All.