📚 Do you remember the feeling of being unable to speak in a dream? In the Country of Men by US-born and British-Libyan novelist Hisham Matar carries a similarly intense mood that lingers just as heavily. The novel explores Libya’s tense political climate in 1979 through the eyes and voice of nine-year-old Suleiman — whose innocent childhood days take a sharp turn into a web of intrigue and secrecy.

The mixture of child innocence with brutal realism is what keeps the novel resonant. The political atmosphere and repression of the time forces Suleiman to remove his rose-colored glasses and acknowledge the reality of the society he grew up in, as his father pays the price for resilience and defending his principles.

You want to help, but you can’t. Throughout your reading, you constantly wish to help the young boy who bears no life experience to inform how to handle the hardships he faces. Trapped between his family’s bitter past and present, hot on the heels of the September 1969 revolution, Suleiman stumbles over events beyond his ability. The cruelty is that you can only sit back, read and observe.

WHERE TO FIND IT- In the Country of Men is available at Diwan.

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