In the Country of Men Quotes

“Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“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؟”
― هشام مطر, في بلاد الرجال

“Nationalism is as thin as a thread, perhaps that's why many feel it must be anxiously guarded”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“Can you become a man without becoming your father?”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“My silence made her say things she didn't need to say..”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“In the end all that remains are numbers, the measurement of distances, the quantity of things.”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“وفي بعض الليالي لم يكن ما أتخيله حسنا. فقد كنت أحلم بالانتقام، وأعيد تصوره مرارا وتكرارا إلى أن تسفر السماء عن تباشير الفجر الرمادي. كم كان يملأني هذا الشعور بالحاجة إلى أن أغدو رجلا بسرعة كبيرة، ولكن ليس لأقوم بالأشياء المرتبطة بالرجولة وامتيازاتها، بل لأغير الماضي، لأنقذ تلك الصبية من يومها الأسود.”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“Perhaps the world is fair and balanced after all; no one gains and no one loses or no one gains and everyone loses equally.”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“How readily and thinly we procure these fictional selves, deceiving the world and what we might have become if only we hadn't got in the way, if only we had waited to see what might have become of us.”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“A corrupt mind turns everything to its advantage.”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“We are...two open pages of the same book”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“It's one thing not to fear death, another to sing under its sword.”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“Naoma, and to the rest of the world she was Um”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“I didn't know you were going to be so beautiful, fill my heart..”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“One's nature is like a mountain”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“Baba never found out about Mama’s illness; she only fell ill when he was away on business.”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men

“last summer before I was sent away. It was 1979,”
― Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men