Available Formats
In the Country of Men
By (Author) Hisham Matar
Penguin Books Ltd
Penguin Books Ltd
15th March 2012
22nd December 2011
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
823.92
Winner of Commonwealth Writers Prize.
Paperback
256
Width 130mm, Height 197mm, Spine 16mm
184g
Nine-year-old Suleiman is just awakening to the wider world beyond the games on the hot pavement outside his home and beyond the loving embrace of his parents. He becomes the man of the house when his father goes away on business, but then he sees his father, standing in the market square in a pair of dark glasses. Suddenly the wider world becomes a frightening place where parents lie and questions go unanswered. Suleiman turns to his mother, who, under the cover of night, entrusts him with the secret story of her childhood.
Born in New York to Libyan parents, Hisham Matar spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived most of his adult life in England. His debut novel In the Country of Men was published in twenty-nine languages and won numerous international prizes as well as being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published to great acclaim in 2011. He lives in London and New York.%%%Hisham Matar was born in New York City to Libyan parents and spent his childhood first in Tripoli and then in Cairo. In the Country of Men was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006, the Guardian First Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in the US. It won six international literary awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book award for Europe and South Asia, the Royal Society of Literatury Ondaatje Prize and the inaugural Arab American Book Award. It has been translated into twenty-eight languages. Hisham Matar's second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published in 2011. Hisham Matar lives in London.%%%Hisham Matar was born in New York to Libyan parents and spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo. His debut novel In the Country of Men was published in twenty-eight languages and won numerous international prizes as well as being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published in 2011 to rave reviews from authors such as Michael Frayn and Roddy Doyle.