Review by Malak Altaeb

The Short

You will get to put together the pieces of the disappearance of a young man’s father in mysterious events. A story of the impact of politics in an exiled family in Egypt and what they had to face for years moving between countries.

The Long 

Written by the Libyan author Hisham Matar. Writing the story about a young boy named Nuri who is based in Exile in Egypt with his parents. He lost his mother from a very young age while watching his father, an ex-finance minister, disappear in strange circumstances leaving Nuri looking for traces of his father. However, this boy named Nuri will find love in his father’s wife, Mona. Love and agony in one story while looking for the traces of his lost father. A story of unfolding the disappearance of his father and how that impacted his life growing up and all the memories he once had and the places he once visited with his father. You will find bits and pieces of his late mother, his house in Egypt, the housemaid and his father’s wife, Mona whom Nuri has always loved since he was young. 

To read or not to read? 

Definitely to read. A different but worthwhile experience in literature. Beautifully and adequately written. I cannot give negative feedback on a very well-written book and profound experience shared by Hisham Matar. The complexity and simplicity of events through the story will push readers to question and discover new things.