Hisham Matar
Hisham Matar’s The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between is a poignant memoir about his quest to learn the fate of his father. It includes background on Libya’s fight for independence from Italy and Ghaddafi’s emergence as Libya’s brutal dictator.
The memoir opens in 2012 with Hisham returning to his native Libya after Ghaddafi’s ouster. He reconnects with his extended family and seeks information about his father, Jaballa Matar. Hisham’s father had been a prominent political activist who used his money, influence, and voice to fight the Ghaddafi regime. The family escaped to Egypt when the situation became too dangerous for them in Libya. They lived in Egypt for several years until Jaballa was kidnapped and returned to Libya to be incarcerated in the notorious Abu Salim prison. That is the last his family knows of his whereabouts. In 2011, Hisham’s uncle and cousins are released from prison after serving 21 years for opposing the Ghaddafi regime. His father is not.
Hisham returns to Libya after an absence of thirty years. In the interim, he has acquired fame as an author. He was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. His fame and outspoken political activism earn him global recognition and garner influence with the British authorities by calling attention to the horrendous plight of political dissidents under Ghaddafi. He causes such turmoil for Libya that he is eventually able to extract a commitment for Ghaddafi’s son to reveal the fate of his father. Promises are made; promises are broken. And it is only after his return to Libya in 2012 that Hisham concludes his father was probably murdered by the Libyan authorities and that his body will never be found.
Matar’s diction is lyrical and emotionally gripping. He moves seamlessly between Libyan history to stories about his father’s incarceration, the brutality of the regime running as a common thread. Matar has been caught in a liminal phase since his father’s disappearance. He occupies a space between his adopted home in England and his homeland in Libya, feeling like an exile wherever he goes. He lives simultaneously in the past and present. His memoir consists of frequent flashbacks to the past, recalling incidents with his father, his life in Egypt, and the day of his father’s disappearance. He is trapped in the in-between space of not knowing whether his father is alive or dead. Should he continue to hope, or should he abandon all hope? He fluctuates between anger and despair. This in-between psychic space has plagued Matar since his father’s disappearance and fuels his memoir.
Matar’s haunting memoir shows the perpetual impact of the disappeared on family members left behind. The agony of not-knowing permeates every aspect of Hisham’s life. He and his family share a common plight with family members of the disappeared all over the world as they desperately try to learn the fate of their loved ones.
A powerful memoir that depicts in meticulous and harrowing detail the emotional and psychological trauma of the search for truth and justice on behalf of the disappeared and their families.
Highly recommended.