HISHAM MATAR In The Country of Men ***

A sad book and a good book, but for some reason it didn't grip me.

The story is told by 9-year old Suleiman, and it has amazing contemporary resonance, as it’s set in Libya under Gaddafi, but the time is 1979.

One of his father’s close friends, a neighbour, has just been taken away by the brutal police. This neighbour and Suleiman’s father have been writing and distributing underground material attacking the government. Are the police going to be knocking on their door soon? A gut-wrenching sense of fear pervades the whole novel.

Suleiman’s mother is furious at the way her husband is endangering them all, and is often ‘taken ill’ – which we soon discover means she’s hit the bottle again. Suleiman is just confused. He loves his parents and their friends and doesn’t know what’s going on.

There is some heroism, but a lot of betrayal brought on by fear – which makes it all seem sadly realistic.