Matar, Hisham. In the Country of Men. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2006.
Powerful and yet gently moving, Matar has created an exceptional novel. Set in Libya, in 1979, In the Country of Men is written from the eyes of a boy forced to grow old before his time. Within a framework of his mother’s frequent “illnesses” and the ever growing question of what type of man his father really is, nine-year old Suleiman witnesses the clash between democracy and the current Libyan government and the conflict that ensues because of it.
From the characters rich in detail and realistically flawed to the beautiful language in which Matar has captured both emotion and history, I enjoyed everything about this novel.
