In the Country of Men
by:
Hisham Matar (author)
Nine-year-old Suleiman is just awakening to the wider world beyond the games on the hot pavement outside his home and beyond the loving embrace of his parents. He becomes the man of the house when his father goes away on business, but then he sees his father, standing in the market square in a...
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Nine-year-old Suleiman is just awakening to the wider world beyond the games on the hot pavement outside his home and beyond the loving embrace of his parents. He becomes the man of the house when his father goes away on business, but then he sees his father, standing in the market square in a pair of dark glasses. Suddenly the wider world becomes a frightening place where parents lie and questions go unanswered. Suleiman turns to his mother, who, under the cover of night, entrusts him with the secret story of her childhood.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780241957073 (0241957079)
Publish date: December 1st 2011
Publisher: Viking
Edition language: English
I liked this overall--with a mild kept-reading-to-the-end liking, but I couldn't love it as I wanted to. The reason being I think just about the most unlikable child protagonist I've encountered in literature. The story is set in Qaddafi's Libya in 1979, and I did love how Matar rendered the setting...
...Sadly, I didn’t enjoy the novel as much as the beautiful, evocative writing deserved. IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN is a well-written, interesting novel and one that provides a disturbing picture of the old Libya. Reading the harsh realities of life under the tyrant Qaddafi, I'm no longer surprised that ...
How good are you really? Can you hold on to your principle when others left you all alone? Are you there, in front of the mob facing the barricade, because of the mob? Will you stand there all alone?The answer can only be found when you're facing it and sometimes it's not the answer you thought it w...
Libya. One of the better novels I've read recently. Matar gives us a narrative from a boy's point of view. Suleiman's story of his family life Libya under Qaddafi is not a war narrative, but partakes of many of that genre's elements, much like Ondjaki's Good Morning Comrades. Matar's parallels, whil...
I finished this book in one day and that rarely, rarely happens. I cannot say I enjoyed the book--at least not in the sense that it was a pleasurable read. The story is sad, frustrating, complex, and I absolutely could not put the book down. Hisham Matar writes poetically about very difficult tim...
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