Anatomy of a Disappearance [Hardcover]

If a book had an emotion then I think the one word that you could conjure up when finishing `Anatomy of a Disappearance' is longing. As we follow the story of Nuri, who is on holiday in Alexandria with his father, who has recently been bereaved by the death of his mother. Here he befriends a foreign woman (who is set alight from the first scene by her bright yellow swimsuit) Mona, a young woman who he soon becomes rather obsessed with before learning that his father has very similar feelings. Of course Nuri only being a boy at the time knows this can lead nowhere yet that doesn't stop him from being romantic about the whole situation, for his father though it is a different matter. Things are of course going to get complicated and initial problems between father and son since Nuri's mothers death start to become darker, even bitter.

If this wasn't enough to keep a story brimming with tension Matar adds several more strands which simmer in the background. One of the strands is that of Nuri's fathers place in the past history of Libya where he was the right hand man to a King who was subsequently assassinated leaving him forced to flee to France. This opens a big background underlying subplot about the state the family is in, how they have made the money they have and where they have ended up. There are also two slight mysteries. Nuri's mothers death leaves some open ended questions and there is also the fact that when the book initially opens, before this fateful holiday, Nuri has told us somewhere in the future sat by Lake Geneva with Mona that his father has strangely disappeared. All these things bubble away in the background as you read on which is incredibly satisfying to have unfolding in the pages in your hands.

It also to me showed what a stunning writer Matar is. I hadn't heard of him before despite my interest in the Man Booker, for which he was shortlisted with his debut novel `In The Country of Men' in 2006. Yet having done some research after reading the book I discovered that his own father disappeared several decades ago (which he wrote about in the Guardian here) and this seems to be an outpouring of some of that. Not that that should take anything away from this book by the way or Matar's prose. His writing is exquisite, not a phrase I tend to use very often, and is clearly designed to say the maximum in a minimal way yet effortlessly without force. There is much going on in the book and switches in time and he gives the reader enough information to grasp at the unsaid which he trusts the reader will work out and question.

`Anatomy of a Disappearance' felt like one of those rare books you more than just read. You live it. You learn it, and in my case I went off afterwards and learnt far more about it once I had finished. It's a short book with so much to say I would be amazed if anyone who reads it isn't left thinking about it or even starting it all over again after their first reading. I am inclined to agree with Dovegreyreader who after reading it tipped it as an early possible Man Booker contender. I certainly would be happy to see it there.

Hisham Matar's background has a particular resonance at the moment, with the momentous and violent events taking place in Libya. His father was a political dissident opposed the Gaddafi regime, and the family were forced to flee their home and went to live in Egypt. It was from Cairo that his father was abducted, never to be seen again by Matar, although he was reported to be imprisoned in a notorious Libyan jail.

And his latest novel `Anatomy of a Disappearance' is a moving piece of writing that draws heavily on this personal experience of loss. It is a relatively short book, at less than 250 pages, but is densely packed with emotion, desire, and desperation. It is beautifully written as it explores the relationship between Nuri, a young boy, his father Kamal, and new girlfriend Mona. It is fourteen year old Nuri who spots Mona first, by a hotel pool whilst on holiday, and he gallantly and confidently helps her to take a thorn out of her foot. She is much younger than Kamal, but nevertheless becomes his partner, but Nuri cannot repress the strong feelings that he had and continues to have for her, with inevitable consequences.

His wealthy and privileged upbringing, despite the loss of his beloved mother, is the backdrop to this tale, played out surrounded by other strong female characters like his long devoted servant Naima. He is sent away to an English boarding school at Mona's insistence, and from here has to suffer the wrench of his father's disappearance. Kamal's political views and actions are not clearly spelt out, but the inference about them leading to his loss of liberty is made clear.

Matar writes in a sensitive and moving way, and tells a rich and multi layered story which is simple, but with many complexities beneath its obvious themes. It deserves to be read for its considerable merits, but also as a stark reminder of the human loss behind such brutal dictatorships.

When a young boy loses his mother, one consequence is that he finds himself having to relate to his father in a new way, perhaps with a new intensity, which may or may not be an improvement on the older, more easy-going but semi-detached relationship. In Anatomy of a Disappearance young Nuri finds himself full of grief for his mother but far from consoled by his relationship with his rather distant father, a political activist, world traveller and lover of women.

Nuri goes on holiday with his father to a beach-front hotel in Alexandria, but notes that "he seemed to have lost his way with me; widowhood had dispossessed him of any ease that he had once had around his only child". While sitting by the pool one day, Nuri meets Mona, a young woman in a yellow swimming suit and in the easy way which young boys can sometimes adopt, finds himself picking a thorn out of her toe. Nuri's father watches the exchange between Mona and Nuri and the outcome of his glance suggests that it is not only the son who will become entranced with Mona.

For the rest of the holiday, Nuri follows Mona around, observing her every movement and developing a powerful early-adolescent love for her. One morning Nuri comes down to breakfast and finds that Mona and his father have already eaten and are walking by the sea, "their paces could not have been better matched". With adult eyes we see what Nuri is soon going to discover, that Mona is going to be a permanent feature in both their lives from now on, but her emotional hold of both father and son is going to lead to some subtle complications later on.

Hisham Matar is a fine writer, perfectly portraying the yearning of adolescence and the growth into adult-hood of Nuri, a thoughtful and serious boy, who's emotional development will be increasingly steered by the beautiful and enigmatic Mona.

But this is not just a book about a boy's feelings for an older woman. Nuri's father is a political activist who operates on the world stage, and the story takes a dramatic turn with events happening across several nations.

I enjoyed reading this book. At first I thought I was going to get bored with so much adolescent angst, but the story soon takes off in some very unexpected directions. The writing is beautiful throughout - sparse, elegant prose which demonstrates Matar's ability to exercise restraint where it is required, levaing the reader to fill in the gaps. Reading Anatomy of a Disappearance is a joint-effort, the words generating an inner dialogue with readers as they reflect on the occasionally poetic turn of phrase.

Hisham Matar is well-qualified to write this book, born in America of Libyan parents he spent his childhood in Libya and Egypt, but took his degree in architecture in London. As the book moves around from one location to another it is quite clear that this is normal territory to this cosmopolitan writer.