How do you write about a loss? Specially, if the loss is so acute and bearing it is breaking your life. And, then how do you talk about grief? Which encompasses like an endless ocean, not letting you see the horizon beyond without the misty eyes or for that matter, not letting you sleep in the night as the dark shadow of that grief spreads across your mind leading to cold, troubled nightmares. This gnawing of irreplaceable parting can be seen in this book of Hisham Matar.

Like his previous works, here also he is talking about his homeland- Libya and the turmoils within it as a result of the revolutions. However, since this books is biographical in nature, so the focus is more on his immediate and extended family. In the course of the story, we also meet many of their supporters, well-wishers and opponents.

At the heart of this book is Hisham Matar’s search for his father- Jaballa Matar, who was taken away by the Egyptian authorities two decades ago from their home in Cairo and later moved to imprisonment in Libya. It’s been more than two decades since his capture, but very few people can talk with certainty what had became of Jaballa Matar. There is lot of uncertainty with regards to his confinement and what that has resulted into- release, banishment or death.

This autobiographical novel is all about author’s search for those answers. As he explains that he is grateful of having a free, liberal life but still, he can’t shake the feeling of attachment towards his long lost homeland and his extended family. In the course of this book, we meet so many of his relatives who have spent almost half or one third of their lives in Libya’s infamous prisons and somehow made out live. They survived to tell the tales of the countless horrors inflicted on them by the Libyan dictatorship and how those terrors have changed them completely.

At the focus of this family gathering are the author’s immediate family members which include his mother, his older brother – Ziad and his wife- Diana. Despite spending several years apart in different countries or may be because they have been so scattered from each other; the bonding between them is very special. But it’s quite heartbreaking the way they approach the topic of Jaballa Matar’s disappearance- it’s like handling some precious, heirloom object, be careful while handling it.

The excruciating pain, hours upon hours of frantic searching and negotiating- at times with the devil himself, to get even a tiny morsel of information is the most important and emotional part of this book. We can see author’s use of careful words, his command on the language in delivering the raw, gut wrenching emotions in such a nuanced, delicate manner.

This book is recommended for everyone who would like to familiarise themselves with the geopolitical status of Libya and the revolution of 2011. However, it goes much beyond that and so, it’s definitely worth a read for all those who have lost someone somewhere in the course of life, oh so suddenly. This is a highly sought after story which is worth all of the praise it garnered.