Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar was born in New York City to Libyan parents. His first novel, In the Country of Men, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Matar lives in London and serves as an associate professor at Barnard College in New York City. This event is co-sponsored by the Newberry Library's A.C. McClurg ... (more)Bookstore. Admission is free and no reservations are required.

“There are times when my father’s absence is as heavy as a child sitting on my chest. Other times I can barely recall the exact features of his face and must bring out the photographs I keep in an old envelope in the drawer of my bedside table. There has not been a day since his sudden and mysterious ... (more)vanishing that I have not been searching for him, looking in the most unlikely places. Everything and everyone, existence itself, has become an evocation, a possibility for resemblance. Perhaps this is what is meant by that brief and now almost archaic word: elegy.” So begins Matar’s remarkable new novel Anatomy of a Disappearance. His own father was ‘disappeared’ by the Gaddafi regime twenty years ago and although this novel is a brilliantly conceived work of fiction with a hero whose story is unlike Matar’s own outside of this one central element, the book’s publication coincided with family news and the uprising in Libya against the Gaddafi regime. Philippe Sands is an international lawyer and the author of several books, most recently Torture Team. His work in shaping and defining international law to protect citizens living under oppressive regimes brings an extra dimension to this discussion of Matar’s work. Please book early to avoid disappointment. Events cost £5 and include wine. Call or email the bookshop on 020 7229 1010, bookshop@lutyensrubinstein.co.uk to reserve your tickets

Sometimes you can’t outrun history. We welcome three internationally acclaimed talents for an inquiry into pasts that are always present. Madeleine Thien’s Dogs at the Perimeter, an unblinking portrait of loss and recovered humanity, follows the long shadow of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia into the ... (more)present day. In a delicately wrought and beautifully tender voice, Hisham Matar’s extraordinary new novel, Anatomy Of A Disappearance, asks: “When a loved one disappears, how does his or her absence shape the lives of those who are left?” Lyrical and riveting. Johanna Skibrud’s Giller Prize-winning novel, The Sentimentalists, draws on the horrors of the Vietnam War to examine what lies beneath the surface of everyday life, and of the commanding power of the past. Tickets $15 / $10 reduced. Free for festival members.

Tickets £8.