The Return
Updated: Jun 20, 2020
By Hisham Matar
The Return (2017) by Hisham Matar (1970) won the Pulitzer Prize. It is an amazing book. Matar is an American born, British-Libyan author. This book is about his real life search for his father who was kidnapped in Libya and held prisoner. Sadly Matar has to come to terms with his fathers ghost and the trauma of his Libyan homeland under the dictatorship of Qaddafi. The book is both a very personal story of family, of fear, anger and love, of fathers and sons. Yet, it is also a political book about the dangers and horrors of absolute power and how it corrupts and destroys. It is a work of reality and reflection that illuminates many of the conflicts, prejudices and tragedies found not just in Libya or the Middle East, but in the world at large. It is a beautifully and powerfully written book, that was as is said "too good to put down." Read it to find new understanding of the world as well as deeper empathy for people and places that may seem distant, but in the world today are much closer than we may think. Read. Learn. Enjoy your growth as a human being.