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In the Country of Men
by Hisham Matar
Matar's debut novel, shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, describes the effects of the 1969 Libyan September revolution on a 9-year-old boy struggling to understand his family's plight during Moammar Gaddafi's brutal reign.
The Dial Press, 256 pages
01/30/2007
$22.00
ISBN: 0385340427
Fiction
Historical Fiction
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Christian Science Monitor Yvonne Zipp
Reviewers like to give debut novels a pat on the head by calling them "promising." If In the Country of Men proves to be merely a promise of what Hisham Matar can do, London's literary lights had better watch their backs.
The New York Times Book Review Lorraine Adams
What can a child know about totalitarianism? In Hisham Matar’s exceptional first novel, this question transcends the psychological to yield something rare in contemporary fiction: a sophisticated storybook inhabited by archetypes, told with a 9-year-old’s logic, written with the emphatic and memorable lyricism of verse.
Washington Post Ron Charles
Though set in one of the world's most peculiar, most despotic countries, this sad, beautiful novel captures the universal tragedy of children caught in their parents' terrors.
The Guardian Kamila Shamsie
Matar movingly charts the ways in which love endures in situations of great repression, but also shows how repression threatens everything, even love, putting relationships under a strain that can be unendurable.
Kirkus Reviews
A tender-hearted account, winning in its simplicity, of a childhood infected too soon by the darkness of adults. [1 Nov 2006, p.1095]
Library Journal Evelyn Beck
Most memorable in this beautifully written book is the relationship between Suleiman and his young mother...Matar portrays [it] in intimate, realistic, and heartbreaking scenes. [15 Nov 2006, p.58]
Publishers Weekly
Matar wrests beauty from searing dread and loss. [30 Oct 2006, p.34]
The Observer Oscar Turner
In the Country of Men is a powerful political novel and a tender evocation of universal human conflicts - over identity, forgiveness, love.
The Independent Benedicte Page
Matar has written not just a story about a troubled country, but also a beautifully nuanced tale of the complexity of family relationships and the painful vulnerabilities of childhood.
Wall Street Journal William Birdthistle
In the Country of Men is a poetic and powerful account of the days of dread that Suleiman and his mother endure....The atmospheric reality of Mr. Matar's portrait speaks to me with particular intensity.
New York Review Of Books Pankaj Mishra
Matar balances...delicacy of sentiment with beautifully expressive images....[He] also shows how ordinary human beings under severe pressures are as capable of great cruelty as of great sympathy.
Boston Globe Eric Weinberger
Everything about In the Country of Men is competent, although only as we learn something about Libya is it gripping.
Booklist Deborah Donovan
Matar tells a gripping and shocking tale that illuminates the personal facet of a national nightmare. [1 Dec 2006, p.22]
The Spectator Jonathan Keates
Across a relatively short span, In the Country of Men continuously surprises us with its thematic richness.
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Mary-Lou Zeitoun
Matar's [tone is] delicate and often anguished...his [words] consistently grave and poetic.
The Independent David Dabydeen
What emerges from this moving and graceful novel is the insistence that memories of love will survive the country of men.
Daily Telegraph Katie Owen
[Suleiman’s] love for [his mother], which comes close at times to hate, is the strongest theme of an exceptional book.
Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
In limpid prose, Matar captures an ordinary, sometimes craven boy caught up in a political nightmare, and the poignant grown-up nostalgia for the certainties and security of a childhood cut abruptly short.
Los Angeles Times Susan Salter Reynolds
Matar is a careful, controlled writer. His restraint - the spaces and the light between his words - make reading his work a physical as well as an emotional experience.
The Nation Ali Sethi
Hisham Matar's powerful debut novel, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, tries to pry the lid off [Libya’s] quietly simmering caldron.
 The average user rating for this book is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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