- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Dial Press (30 Jan 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0385340427
- ISBN-13: 978-0385340427
- Product Dimensions: 14.9 x 2.1 x 21.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,838,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
In the Country of Men
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Product Description
Review
Exquisite, so full of essential truths: the more you read the more you feel the childhood described in it is yours (Nadeem Aslam, Author Of Maps for Lost Lovers )
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Anne Michaels, author of 'Fugitive Pieces'
''In the Country of Men' understands that love - despite betrayal, grief, mistrust, rage, political terror - nevetheless remains love’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is very powerful, poignant story - told through the eyes of a young boy - who struggles to understand the world he is living in. Through the eyes of Suleiman we see and feel a frightening, confusing picture unfold. Telling the story of Tripoli, and Suleiman's parents in this way, the reader is drawn right into the heart of this family and the times they live in. An enthralling read that has a lot to say about freedom, and what it feels like when those basic freedoms we all take for granted don't exist - and there is a terrifying echo on the phone.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Hisham Matar's first novel is a compelling short novel centred on Suleiman, a nine year old boy experiencing the domestic chaos of his embittered mother and the ramifications of the business, both commercial and political, his often-absent father becomes embroiled in. Matar is at his most convincing in his descriptions of the random acts of violence and betrayal young children inflict on their playmates, parents and the vulnerable, as well as the child's bafflement at the hidden machinations of their parents' domestic world, one so close to them but only perceived in fragments and misconceptions. The politics of the Qaddafi regime are always present and their effect on Suleiman often profound, but Suleiman the child, exploring the parameters of his world in the selfish focus of childhood, is the main focus. The narrative flits around like a child that becomes bored just concentrating on one thing. Whilst the novel is a mirror of the child Suleiman, the adult Suleiman telling his tale often intrudes and expresses his thoughts of what he endured as a child in language a nine-year old would not use. The child's perspective disappears completely in the last section of the book where Suleiman's adolescence and young adulthood are telescoped in a few pages. In this book much is touched on and yet much is also left out--the gaping holes of childhood recollections or a narrative technique designed to frustrate the reader? It's not an entirely satisfying read. Reservations aside, as a tale of a childhood in Libya, it is an engaging and at times terrifying look at a discontented adult world through the eyes of a not so innocent child.
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is 1979 and nine-year old Suleiman lives in the brutal police state of Gaddafi's Libya. When the novel opens, a neighbour and his father's close friend, Rashid, has been taken away by the police. Suleiman's father Faraj is in hiding; his febrile mother Najwa is distraught at the way Faraj has endangered himself and his family, and is furious with another friend, the Egyptian Moosa, who has egged on Rashid and Faraj into writing and distributing underground material. The sense of danger is palpable; it haunts Suleiman, and he is tossed about by one emotion after another: a child's love for his parents and for their friends alternates with anger and exasperation; friendship with Rashid's son Kareem alternates with betrayal; understanding and not understanding jostle each other; at times he holds himself in and will not speak, at others he acts impulsively, with fateful consequences; he is haunted by guilt, reinforced by the Islamic teaching he has received about the damnation in store for those who stray from the path of virtue. With his father away, Suleiman has been told he is the man of the house, but he is after all only nine years old. He has to see some terrible things. A few pages from the end of the book, his parents send him to safety in Egypt. With great economy, those pages convey the bleak effects of such a separation.
The Libyan setting - political, cultural and physical - is extremely well evoked. A novel of great power and psychological subtlety.
The Libyan setting - political, cultural and physical - is extremely well evoked. A novel of great power and psychological subtlety.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Well written, interesting
...Sadly, I didn't enjoy the novel as much as the beautiful, evocative writing deserved. IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN is a well-written, interesting novel and one that provides a... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Judy Croome
Unanimous!
This was a rare event - a book club choice that everyone rated at between 4 and 5 stars. I think the only other book to achieve this recently was Hisham Matar's more recent book,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by DubaiReader
A very satisfying read
This novel works becasue of the quality of the author's writing. In describing the world of seas and mulberries he is a sensualist; when writing of executions and arrests he is a... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Gerry McCaffrey
Frustratingly slow, childishly written
I was attracted to this book because I wanted to read a personal, insider's account of what it's been like to live under the Gaddafi regime in recent decades. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Ramessesthesecond
In the country of men
Wonderfully evocative novel of childhood in gadaffi's libya. The emotional stresses fermenting in the home, the street and the society the protagonist grows up in mould his... Read more
Published 8 months ago by christine downton
a wonderful, well-told story
This is a very well-written book, telling the story of events in Libya 30 years ago through the eyes of a child. Read more
Published 11 months ago by bookworm100
Totalitarianism in Tripoli
In the Country of Men is, at the time this review is being posted (May 2011), topical: it is a denunciation of Libyan authoritarianism and violence. Read more
Published 12 months ago by reader 451
Compelling. Brilliant. Devastating.
The engaging conversational prose written from a child's perspective only serves to heighten the horror of a family experiencing Qaddafi's bloodthirsty regime at first hand, made... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Jonathan P. Guppy
In the Country of Men
Book came in excellent condition. Really enjoyed the read all the more becaus of the current situation in Libya. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mhari
Growing up under Gaddafi
Since the escalation of political unrest in Libya recently, the author of this 2006 Booker shortlisted novel has been in demand to comment about living under Gaddafi - something he... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Annabel Gaskell
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