IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN by Hisham Matar Viking NZ$35.00





This from the back cover blurb:

Set in Libya during the late 1970’s Qaddafi regime this title takes you from a world rarely seen in fiction and brings it brilliantly and vividly to life.

This first novel sold in heated auctions across Europe and in the U.S. within a week of being submitted and will be published in 13 languages.

In the Country of Men is told from the point of view of a young boy growing up in a terrifying and bewildering world where his beat friend’s father disappears and is next seen on television at a public execution; where a mysterious man sits outside the house al day and asks stange questions; where his mother burns all their books when it seems his fatjer has disappeared,

Hisham Matar was born in 1970 in New York to Libyan parents and spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo. He has lived in London since 1986 and is currently at work on his second novel.

And this from me:

Suleiman is 9 years old when the story opens and most of the book details a few months in his life set against a background of widespread raids by secret police operating under instructions from the Revolutionay Committees. It was a time to keep your head down in Libya and to constantly praise Allah and the Guide, as Qaddafi was known.
This period is a time of drama for Suleiman and his parents and eventually Suleiman is sent to live with friends in Cairo.
This latter part of the book, amounting to less than 20 pages sees Suleiman educated and grow up to become a pharmacist and when the book closes he is 24 years of age.

An entertaining, eye-opening even work and the author is clearly an exciting new writing talent but I wish he had given us more of the adult life of his protagonist. Perhaps he will in his second novel?

Book reviewers are often given uncorrected proof copies of books for review purposes. This is so that we can read them in advance and hopefully have our reviews published on or around publication date.Likewise they are sometimes given to booksellers so they can read them in advance of publication and so be able to recommend them to customers on publication.

I read this book over this past holiday weekend while staying with a bookseller friend who had been given an uncorrected proof copy and I was interested to read the following clause which appeared at the front of his copy:

If you’ve been lucky enough to get your hands on this uncorrected proof copy, please read it and if you enjoy the book, do pass it along to your friends and colleagues. However, we request that you don’t sell or otherwise try to profit from this complimentary early copy as it remains the property of Penguin Books. We do number or proofs and we’d rather not be forced to name, shame and take further action against anyone who abuses our trust.

That’s the boring stuff out of the way – now simply turn the page and enjoy the book.

Fair enough. I did read and enjoy the book and then gave the proof copy back to my bookseller friend Philip, after all I didn’t want him to be named or shamed!