• In the Country of Men

  • A Novel
  • By: Hisham Matar
  • Narrated by: Khalid Abdalla
  • Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (51 ratings)

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In the Country of Men  By  cover art

In the Country of Men

By: Hisham Matar
Narrated by: Khalid Abdalla
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Publisher's summary

Libya, 1979. Nine-year-old Suleiman's days are circumscribed by the narrow rituals of childhood: outings to the ruins surrounding Tripoli, games with friends played under the burning sun, exotic gifts from his father's constant business trips abroad. But his nights have come to revolve around his mother's increasingly disturbing bedside stories full of old family bitterness. And then one day Suleiman sees his father across the square of a busy marketplace, his face wrapped in a pair of dark sunglasses. Wasn't he supposed to be away on business yet again? Why is he going into that strange building with the green shutters? Why did he lie? Suleiman is soon caught up in a world he cannot hope to understand - where the sound of the telephone ringing becomes a portent of grave danger; where his mother frantically burns his father's cherished books; where a stranger full of sinister questions sits outside in a parked car all day; where his best friend's father can disappear overnight, next to be seen publicly interrogated on state television.

In the Country of Men is a stunning depiction of a child confronted with the private fallout of a public nightmare. But above all, it is a debut of rare insight and literary grace.

©2006 Hisham Matar (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about In the Country of Men

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

I wish I could have learned more….

Redundancy abounds in this novel that drones on in only one person’s point of view, that of a whining self-absorbed 9 year old boy. I Wish I could have learned more about Libya and the political situation occurring.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully written!

Gorgeous writing. Powerful psychological insights into the nature of humans and the human spirit. Stunning

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