A review by bobbo49
The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

 Matar's family story, centered around the arrest, imprisonment and disappearance of his father (a former diplomat who became a political dissident) and other close relatives during Qaddafi's cruel dictatorship in Libya. Matar's writing captures the despair and disorientation of the rest of the family as they try to live their lives outside of Libya under the shadow of the disappeared, seeking answers but without responses. When Qaddafi's regime is overthrown, Matar and his brother return to Libya to finish their father's story. A very hard book to read: the depth of personal and family loss and grief is perceptible on every page.