Sons and the Land in Between - The Return (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

Hisham Matar's memoir of his return to Libya after an absence of 30 years in an attempt to determine the fate of his father is a wonderfully written and moving read that's part mystery and part conflicted homage to a country and a man absent from Matar's life for many years. Matar--a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and Man Booker Prize for the equally wonderful (and no doubt inspired by these events) "In the Country of Men"--writes with a the passion and insistent inquiries of a son looking for a father, which is, of course what he's doing.

"The Return" tells the story of Matar's return to Libya with his wife and mother in an attempt to determine the fate of his dissident father (Jaballah Matar, who was taken prisoner when the author was a teen going to school in London). The Matars left Libya in exile when Hisham was 8 years old as a result of his brave father's outspoken opposition to Qaddafi. When Qaddafi was deposed in October 2011, the prisons were cleared and Hisham Matar had the opportunity to personally look for father he hadn't seen in more than 20 years.

There are plenty of interesting encounters (to include, especially, those with Qaddafi's son), tension, mystery, and terrific writing throughout this book. There also great descriptions of the political, geographical, and physical landscapes. "The Return" is a moving and magnificent read that provides some good context for Matar's previous works of fiction. Well worth reading and highly recommended.

What do you do when your father has been imprisoned in a brutal place, and after 5-6 years there is no word of him? You would search and look for answers, and this is what the author of this book, Hisham Matar, has undertaken.

Matar was born in New York City, the son of Jabella Matar and his wife who, at the time, was working for the Libyan delegation to the United States. Jabella was a very influential man in Libya, but because of his political dissidence against Muammar Gaddafi, he and his family were forced to leave and settled in Cairo. Hisham and his brother Zaid grew up in Cairo, they both studied abroad, and Hashim became a writer. In 1990, Jabella was arrested and imprisoned. All the while, he and his family were sending out tentacles to find their father. As life proceeds we learn of the history of Jabella, his father and grandfather and his life in Libya. We also learn from others what life was like in the horrendous Abu Salim prison.

It is not until 2012, between the overthrow of Gaddafi and the new uprisings that Hisham, his wife, Diane and his mother return to Benghazi and Tripoli. The trip was to find and delineate what happened to Jabella. Coming home to Libya was a significant event. Meeting and reconnecting with all of the relatives, the prisoners from Abu Salim, who had many stories of life in prison. Hisham brings us with him, and we learn first hand his memory of his homeland and his father who was a hero to many. Jabella was a well known person and prisoner who would recite poetry from memory for the prisoners. We also learn more of the political climate, and the lives of all Libyans.

One instance of Hisham's correspondence, communications, telephone calls and personal conversations with Saif, Muammur Gaddafi's son, over a two years period of time are so unrelenting and disappointing, it gives us a feel of the time and the brutality inherent. This is a harrowing tale, often sad, but uplifting in many ways. The faith, strength and hope that is apparent in all of the family is something I will remember. Horrible things can happen in our lives, but we carry on, somehow. A beautifully written book, and moved me deeply.

Recommended. prisrob 04-21-16

The numerous, excellent reviews perhaps make another unnecessary. But a few words of further encouragement to prospective readers can't be out of order in this case. When author Colm Toibin remarks that a book is "likely to become a classic," it is worth paying attention. That is no fluff. This is a brilliant integration of poignant, reflective memoir and hard-nosed history written with the tension of a fine novel. It would be difficult not to be moved by the story of Hisham Matar's struggle to come to terms with the disappearance of his father in the nightmare of Kadaffi's Libya, made sadly more painful by the current state of the country. But the book succeeds as something more, as well: A precise historical remembrance of individual people and of a country still caught up in a whirlwind; and a reminder, too, not only of other struggles but of our common dilemma in reconciling harsh realities and our humanity. A fine and meaningful work by a skilled writer.

“The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between” by Hisham Matar is of course far more than a simple memoir. The author’s father, Jaballa, had been a diplomat during late 1960's, posted as the first secretary of the Libyan Mission to the United Nations; hence Hisham was born in New York in 1970. During the mid-1970’s, Jaballa Matar, no longer involved with the government, prospered briefly as a businessman, but increasing disenchantment with the Qaddafi dictatorship led him to become a prominent member of the opposition. By the 1980’s, the Matar family was living in Cairo, and during this time Hisham and his older brother Ziad were sent abroad to schools in Switzerland and England. In March of 1990, Jaballa was kidnapped by the Egyptian secret police and delivered to Qaddafi in Tripoli, where he was incarcerated in the infamous Abu Salim prison. He was known to be there until 1996; at that time, a prison riot occurred and was answered with the massacre of over 1,200 inmates. Whether or not Jaballa Matar died at that time, or was “disappeared” elsewhere, his family was never able to discover. The search for definitive information concerning his father’s fate provides the main thrust for Hisham Matar’s narrative.

This is, of course, in the category of “stories that must be told”. Dealing with very recent history, as well as current events, the insights that Matar shares are terrifyingly enlightening. This is NOT the story of atrocities committed in the ancient past, by those long departed from the political scene. Many of the players are very much still present and impacting our day-to-day lives. Hisham Matar is himself an author and activist, and the events he discusses led up to the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime in 2011. His last chapters describe interactions with Qaddafi’s son Seif, and make it very clear that the present situation in Libya is the product of past patterns of destruction and oppression. Therefore, though intensely personal, this memoir also offers vital political and sociological insights.

Matar’s narrative is vividly written, but at times I found it extremely confusing as the author does not always make it clear whether he is discussing events in the recent past or those much longer ago. In addition, there are the recollections of other family members and friends, some of whom were also imprisoned at the same time as Jaballa but who survived and were released in 2011 and whom Hisham and his wife Diana visited on his trip to Benghazi in March of 2012. These recollections, interwoven throughout the story, are extremely disconcerting; like the stories told by survivors of the Shoah, they are painful in the extreme. Although these aspects make for difficult reading, this book is important enough to deserve the highest affirmation.

This book struck me in many ways. First, the joyful recognition to have always had an intact family with parents who lived with one another happily until their old age and natural deaths, and brothers who have not had to fight in wars and die for their country. It also reminded me that I have no place that I think of as home other than where I have lived for the last 28 years. But this place is not where I was from, nor is there any place I think of where I have ever been that is more home than here, yet in a way I still feel as if my home here is almost a banishment from what home could have been, except it was all freely chosen, and mostly for economic reasons. Hisham and his family left for political and security reasons and only eventually can return, so the multiplicity of homes and schools, family from other places, even having been born in New York, all remind me of the mobility of modern people, myself included. This history is not for the thin skinned. Thanks Hisham for sharing this story of your family and your country with us.

Hisham Matar’s “The Return” is one of the most brilliantly written memoirs I’ve read in many years. While I really enjoyed his previous two novels and suspected I would enjoy “The Return,” his unique observations and skilled writing really took this over the top for me. Sometimes his prose is so good that you can’t believe the things he describes actually happened to his loved ones, specifically his father. His trip back to Libya, his return, with his mother and his wife, is recounted with probing and emotional insight that will likely move you to tears. I loved this book and will be enthusiastically recommending it.

On the 29th of June, 1996, some 1270 prisoners were massacred to death by Col. Qaddafi’s men in the notorious Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. Jaballa Matar, a Libyan dissident and father of the author of this book, was known to have been interned in that prison since 1990. When news about the massacre broke much later, it wasn’t clear whether Jaballa Matar was one of the 1270. Unable to bear the suspense and grief of being left in the twilight zone of not knowing what became of his father, author Hisham Matar goes on a journey to find the truth about his fate. This book is about this journey, but it is a lot more than just the search for one man’s fate. It is a memoir of the major part of Hisham’s life itself. It can also be seen as a chronicle of the history of Libya under Qaddafi’s tyrannical rule, because Hisham’s life runs parallel to the rise and fall of Qaddafi. It can be seen as a testament to the love, support and intimacy of the extended family of the Matars. It can be seen as a document on the Libyan struggle against the Qaddafi regime. Finally, it can be seen as a tribute to Libyans’ love for their motherland.

Jaballa Matar was a successful businessman in Libya when Col. Qaddafi assumed power in 1969, overthrowing King Idris. Though Matar initially had high hopes on the new Republican regime, he was disillusioned within a decade and went into exile with his family to live in Cairo in 1979. His son, Hisham, was eight years old then. Jaballa Matar was a poetry lover and generously spent his money to support Libyan students abroad and to support scholarly projects like an Arabic translation of a legal encyclopaedia. He was opposed to Qaddafi’s dictatorship and soon became a thorn in the dictator’s flesh. Matar coordinated several sleeper cells inside Libya and raised a small army in Chad to fight the dictatorship. His house in Cairo was always filled with Libyan dissidents. However, unbeknownst to the Matars, the Egyptian regime struck a deal with Qaddafi and kidnapped Jaballa from his flat in Cairo and delivered him to Libyan secret agents in 1990. Hisham was a student in London then and was 19 years old. The family remained in Cairo as nothing was heard from Jaballa for months. Then, a series of three letters and a tape were smuggled out from Libya and reaches the family. They get to know that Jaballa is incarcerated in the deadly Abu Salim prison. However, all communication ceases by 1996 and the family is left in the dark about his fate. As the news about the prison massacre of 1996 reaches the outside world, the Matars start losing hope on Jaballa being alive. Then, in 2009, a recently-released prisoner in Libya phones Hisham saying that he saw Jaballa Matar in 2002 in the ‘Mouth of Hell’ - aka the Abu Salim prison. Hopes rise again in the hearts of the Matars. As events turn out, Qaddafi is overthrown in 2011, making it possible for Hisham to go back to Libya in 2012 to find out what happened to his father.

All through the 22 years since Jaballa Matar’s abduction in 1990, Hisham tries every avenue possible to get at the truth of what happened to his father, uncles and cousins who were all incarcerated in Abu Salim and other prisons in Libya. In 2002, after the UK government of Tony Blair makes a peace deal with Qaddafi, he tries through UK’s official channels for the information. We can see from the narrative that the British government played a cynical role in representing his case to the Libyan regime. Tony Blair, David Miliband and Peter Mandelson do not cover themselves with any glory in the way they handled the case. Hisham also gets to meeting Seif-al-Islam, the son of Qaddafi and a student in London, as part of his efforts. As one would expect, Seif was obtuse and elusive, pretending to be a reformer. He tries to pose as one who wants to help Hisham find the truth, but that the bureaucracy in Tripoli is scuttling his efforts. Many NGOs and civil society organizations help Hisham in his quest as well. Eventually, he lands in Benghazi in 2012, but never gets permission to visit the Abu Salim prison. In any case, that would have been only futile because the Qaddafi regime had made sure that the families of the 1270 prisoners would never get access to the remains of their loved ones. The bodies of the slain prisoners had been crushed, pulverized and scattered into the Mediterranean Sea. In the end, in spite of all the twists and turns and 22 years of efforts, there is no final resolution for Hisham Matar and his family. He has to be just content with the conclusion that, most likely, his father was one those 1270 prisoners killed on that fateful day in 1996. But he cannot be totally sure.

In the aftermath of the revolution in 2012, as Libya descends into anarchy, violence, chaos and threats of fragmentation, we hear nowadays that Qaddafi’s regime provided the Libyan people with security and a reasonable material standard of living in return for the loss of freedom. There is even the suggestion by some that it was better than the anarchy of today. Hisham Matar has the artist’s perspective in dealing with this question. He says that the consequences of the overthrow of Qaddafi are not unexpected after the long, totalitarian rule of Qaddafi. He reminisces that the birth of modern Libya itself was very painful as it experienced one of the most violent campaigns of colonial repression under the Italians. In the 1920s, one in six inhabitants of the 30000 in Tripoli was kidnapped and made to disappear in prisons in Italy. Mussolini particularly chose scholars, jurists, bureaucrats and wealthy traders for disappearance. Much of it is unknown today because it was all overshadowed by even greater horrors inflicted subsequently. The Libyan population was marched on foot to concentration camps across the country. Every family, including the author’s, lost members in these camps; Stories of torture, humiliation and famines filtered down to the subsequent generations. Qaddafi simply followed a similar colonial template when he assumed dictatorial powers. He left no alternative forces to emerge inside Libya as long as he ruled.

In some ways, the book is a testimony to the intimidating power of the modern State, be it democratic or dictatorial. Author Hisham Matar has struggled against State power in Egypt, in UK as well as in Libya. It is this experience which gives him the wisdom to write the following words on the nature of ‘Power’ towards the end of the book: “ …..Power must know how fatigued human nature is, how unready we are to listen, and how willing we are to settle for lies. Power must know that, ultimately, we would rather not know. Power must believe, given how things proceed, that the world was better made for the perpetrator than for those who arrive after the fact, seeking justice or accountability or truth…”.

The book is as much a reflection of a son’s longing for his father as it is on the trauma of exile. It is a record of a Libyan dissident family’s history in the context of authoritarian dictatorship. It is a beautifully written book.

This is a very lyrical memoir. Hisham Matar talks about the disappearance of his dissident father Jaballa, a well-known person in the Libyan and Egyptian intelligence community. While Hisham's family initially fled Libya in 1979, they lived in various cities like Cairo and New York and lived a privileged life abroad. But love of the homeland brought them back. In 1989 his father and several of his male relatives were kidnapped and imprisoned at the infamous Abu Salim prison. Some of his relatives were there 21 years before being released, but his father was not among the freed.

What exactly happened to his father remains a mystery, but I think it's more that no one wants to utter the words that he was killed by the regime. Hisham loves his father and recounts stories with him of his childhood, his early years in Cairo, his relatives, his life as a student in London when his father was taken. This narrative thus weaves flashbacks of his time with his father to the present, with the Libyan uprising and later the Syrian one. He lost a few beloved relatives in the most recent uprising. Some of his cousins rose up to fight and lost their lives. His uncle tells him a story about his father that he never knew, so he's also learning things about his dad that were new to him. This is a story of love and loss.

For people unfamiliar to the history of Libya or the more recent 2011 uprisings across the Middle East may be a little lost in the flow. I was especially interested in the history Libya has with Italy, and the heinous crimes Mussolini committed on the Libyan people; few history books report on that. But the narrative is also filled with poetic reflections that tend to drift off; the narrative often reads like a mourning eulogy for a lost father that has no end. This is also about losing one's country, though, a country Hisham has identified with all his life, even when he lived most of his life outside of it.

A well written suspenseful book about the author's search for his father who was imprisoned in Libya for political reasons and has not been seen or heard from since. Also gives some background on Libyan history. It's heartbreaking and at times hard to read. I wish there were more details about how Libya got to where it is today and I did find the jumping back and forth in time somewhat confusing. Also would have liked to know what's going on in Libya now.

abu salim is a prison in tripoli, libya. in 1996, more than 1200 prisoners were slaughtered. one of the killed may had been hisham matar’s father, a political prisoner.

hisham matar was born in the united states, the son of libyan parents. the family returned to libya when he was three years old, a few years later they moved to egypt. hisham matar received a degree in architecture in london. a bing search for images of benghazi, libya shows photos of a city in flames and a pristine skyline with buildings which appear as though constructed of white lego blocks against a curvature of the blue mediterranean. neither depiction matches hisham matar’s hypnotic prose. it is as a trained architect, the booker prize nominee author penned two evocative descriptions, the first is of city of benghazi as the city designed as a model of an italian city, after the colonization by mussolini, and the second description, a speculation of the architect at work who designed the prison he never set foot inside. in 1990 hishan matar’s father was kidnapped in egypt and imprisoned at abu salim as a political prisoner.

a teacher of literature of the western world, as he waits for word about his father, hisham matar chooses as his spiritual guide the son of odysseus, telemachus. when he returns to libya to be with relatives after the quaddifi regime falls, he is guided by the character from turgenev’s VIRGIN SPRING, alexey dmitrievich nezhdanov, the son of an aristocrat, a dreamer with the heart of a revolutionary.

the value of literature is shared among his relatives and the friends of his father, by his imprisoned uncle who talked of the great works of literature, MADAME BOVARY and THE BROTHERS KARMAZOV, to fellow inmates; the accounts of prisoners who recalled the voice of his father in abu salim, reciting poetry; the house he visits in benghazi where the shelves contain hard found books by western writers, comprising a personal library built under censorship.

nor is libya as a young country, without writers working within their own tradition. in 1911, a poet, rajab abuhweish, imprisoned in a concentration camp, composed and memorized a thirty-stanza poem, which was memorized by others and spread across the country as a form of resistance against the italian occupation.

poems do not stop massacres nor stay the hands of executioners. poems and songs convey the human spirit and testify to our humanity. in london, when the son of quaddafi and his representatives continued to stall in providing information about hisham matar’s father, the world renown writer was always asked when he was returning to libya.

This was a very interesting book. It was interesting book because it provided a glimpse into how one is left to deal with the absence of a loved one. Residing in the United States I am not likely to suffer from being in a situation that even approximates what the author experienced. It tells of the heartbreak and pain the author suffered. It was, quite simply, moving. The writing was great and it was moving. I would suggest it to anyone.

Seems to be a self-serving, arrogant mind dump. Not well written to boot. It was a book that I kept thinking "There must be something here - I just need to read more of it". But there never was anything there. A waste of my time.

Hisham Matar's father, Jabbala, an active Qaddafi dissident, lived in Cairo when kidnapped by the Egyptian security forces, was turned over to Qaddafi's forces and imprisoned in Abu Salim, Tripoli's notorious jail, where he presumably died in 1996. "The Return" is the son's poignant search for his father, the circumstances of his death, and a muted cry for the tortured history of Libya and its people. Matar piercingly explores the nature of fatherhood'"[t]hey are men, like all men, who have come into the world through another man, a sponsor, opening the gate and, if they are lucky, doing so gently, perhaps with a reassuring smile and an encouraging nudge on the shoulder." With the possibility/probability of his father's death, he seeks solace and artistic expiation in Titian's "The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence," and Manet's "the Execution of Emperor Maximilian." Returning to Libya, he interviews his uncles, also imprisoned, and cousins, explores the Italianate architecture, the tortured country's brutal past occupied by the Italians and feels its "sense of place."

Near book's end, he contacts Qaddafi's wealthy, London-based son for assistance and is mercilessly toyed with by this repulsive man,and his despicable entourage; fully quoting their empty promises; little sensing Hisham Matar has the final word on their horridness as humans through the power of his pen and this publication. When and where his father died is left for the reader.

This is a magnificently written book. No mere writer's skills or even talents could produce a book like this, unless the author also possessed an extraordinary heart and the ability to look inside it in the face of painful losses. Deep personal insights that reflect universal pain as well as tragic experiences and heartbreaking losses are required for the creation of such a book. These are hard ingredients no one asks for. Life gave the author no choice. Yet, with meticulous observation and spare language that eschews hyperbole he has transcended events and the pain that accompanies them. Only a master of English who is also a son of Libya could bring this story to us. The author and his family have paid with life and blood and yet their country, once victimized by authoritarian cruelties, is now torn apart by pervasive disorder. It is a story few would wish to read if rendered by the heart and hands of one less gifted. Yet, Hisham Matar has made it a story that must be read. It captivated me and I recommend it to you.

This is an extraordinary book in every way. It is a deeply felt personal story of returning to Libya to find out the fate of his father, a rebel against the Qadaffi regime. It is beautifully written. Such stories have often been told but none more movingly than this. I have ordered his novels.

I think that Hisham Matar writes many beautiful sentences and many very strong paragraphs. His chapters are not always satisfying and his memoir of trying to find out what happened to his father, Jaballa Matar — after he was kidnapped in Cairo by Egyptian secret service agents and turned over to be tortured in his native Libya on 12 March 1990— is often powerful, but is somewhat disappointing. I don’t mean that there is no happy ending, which is pretty clear from the start of the book (or before starting it).

Matar writes with fairly analytical detachment about his grief, barely suppressed rage, the vertigo of displacement, and the frustrations of trying to find out what happened to his father, who was last seen in 1996 before a large-scale (1200 killed) slaughter in the Abu Salim prison. While Tony Blair was cozying up to the despotic regime of Muammar Qaddafi, Qaddafi’s Anglophile second son, Saif al-Islam (who received a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics for a largely plagiarized dissertation) met with Matar, tantalizing him in person and remotely with promises to find out what happened to Jaballa Matar.

Blair and Mubarak come off very badly for their collusion with the despotism of Qaddafi. Matar also discusses the heinous colonial Italian rule of Libya against which his grandfather fought. I think he assumes a familiarity with internal (“tribal”/regional) differences and antagonisms in Libya that general readers of books in English lack.

What I think is crucially missing is an account of his reactions (at the time or later) to the videos of Muammar Qaddafi being brutalized and killed. Qaddafi’s first son was also killed soon thereafter. Saif evaded capture longer and is still awaiting trial. I’d really like to know how Hisham Matar feels about the contrast between his own not knowing what happened to his father and Saif’s not just knowing but being able to see his father’s end.

The title refers to Hisham Matar’s visit to Libya (he was born in 1970 in New York City [where his father was part of the Libyan delegation to the United Nations], grew up mostly in Cairo [to where his father fled in 1979], and has lived in London since 1986) in 2012, when there was hope for an open and democratic society, hopes that were soon dashed, just as Egypt fell first to Islamist rule and then to a return of military autocracy (also see Syria, which currently has both evils at the same time). The post-post- Qaddafi’ is not Matar’s subject, though it is alluded to in his memoir of trying to find his father or find out what happened to him.

This book is unique, since the author has a combination of characteristics: (1) He is originally Libyan, (2) He has also lived in the west for decades and know the western culture. (3) He is masterful in writing in English, (4) He, his family and friends has been active against the dictatorship in Libya. This combination leads into a unique perspective, which he shares with the readers.

Hisham Matar's father, Jabbala, an active Qaddafi dissident, lived in Cairo when kidnapped by the Egyptian security forces, was turned over to Qaddafi's forces and imprisoned in Abu Salim, Tripoli's notorious jail, where he presumably died in 1996. "The Return" is the son's poignant search for his father, the circumstances of his death, and a muted cry for the tortured history of Libya and its people. Matar piercingly explores the nature of fatherhood'"[t]hey are men, like all men, who have come into the world through another man, a sponsor, opening the gate and, if they are lucky, doing so gently, perhaps with a reassuring smile and an encouraging nudge on the shoulder." With the possibility/probability of his father's death, he seeks solace and artistic expiation in Titian's "The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence," and Manet's "the Execution of Emperor Maximilian." Returning to Libya, he interviews his uncles, also imprisoned, and cousins, explores the Italianate architecture, the tortured country's brutal past occupied by the Italians and feels its "sense of place."

Near book's end, he contacts Qaddafi's wealthy, London-based son for assistance and is mercilessly toyed with by this repulsive man,and his despicable entourage; fully quoting their empty promises; little sensing Hisham Matar has the final word on their horridness as humans through the power of his pen and this publication. When and where his father died is left for the reader.

A beautifully written memoir by a man whose life has been steeped in exile. The narrative follows his 2012 return to Libya — the first time he has set foot in the country since his family fled in 1979 when he was eight. Living primarily in England, he has been constantly trying to find out what happened to his father, Jaballa Matar, who was “disappeared” in 1990 at the height of Qaddafi’s reign of terror. Flashbacks to childhood, his father’s disappearance, and the persistent and largely unfulfilled quest for information comprise most of the text. Various family artifacts and conversations introduce even more history — his grandfather’s arrest and escape in the time of Mussolini, short stories written by his father as a young man, and interviews with those who had memories of his father in prison.

This is a memoir, not an objective work; however it is steeped in the history of the region. The personal is an overlay on the political and social history of Libya from the Italian invasion of 1911 through the present. I found it very helpful to jot down a timeline of events as they are delivered when relevant to his thinking / discovery / memory, rather than in any chronological order. The personal reflection is profound — he grows up almost entirely away from the place and people he calls home, in the shadow of an absent father who is either hero or traitor depending on who is doing the talking. His prose is vivid, but not overly emotionalized. The description of the politics and bureaucracy involved in even trying to find out whether or not his father is still alive is stunning — in the literal sense of the word.

Pulitzer Prize winner! Definitely worth reading.

Some quotes:
“There is no country where the oppressed and the oppressor are so intertwined as in Libya”

“That slightly stifled gait all political prisoners have. As though oppression were toxic sediment that lingered in the muscles.”

“They were a gift sent back through time, opening a window onto the interior landscape of the young man who was to become my father.”

“Guilt is exile’s eternal companion. It stains every departure.”

A personal account of how one family was affected by its patriarch's involvement in the opposition of the Qaddafi regime. My interest was maintained throughout. However, I was more interested in Libya's journey from colonialism under fascist Italy to the present  and how it affected Matar's extended family than his visits to European museums and the like even though the latter was written with a literary flair. It gave me better context for my experiences during my visits to Libya before the Arab spring, an understanding  of why people were too guarded to discuss politics, and the  heavy security presence by the regime. But more than anything it is a testimony of love written by a son seeking closure who was robbed from a chance to say goodbye.