Hisham Matar's English prose, infused with a breath of Arabic mien, makes this novel an exceptionally good read. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is that the truth about Naima was treated too lightly by Nuri. That would've been easier to accept if it didn't contradict Nuri's charact...
The title of this book is very clinical, but not the book itself, which is subjective, impressionistic, and full of unanswered questions about both the narrator's father and mother. Set in Egypt, England, and Switzerland, the book is in some ways a retrospective coming-of-age story, in which we ...
Some books you just read at the perfect time in your life. This was one of them. I still remember the first line of the book--that's how much it grabbed me:"There are times when my father's absence is as heavy as a child sitting on my chest."Matar's writing is minimalist and profoundly expressive...