My Friends

Pulitzer winner Matar (for The Return, a memoir) presents a poised and poignant story of a Libyan dissident exiled in the United Kingdom during the Qaddafi era. In 1983, 17-year-old Khaled leaves Benghazi to study literature in Edinburgh, where he meets excitable Mustafa. While attending an anti-Qaddafi protest in London they are both shot by pro-Libyan gunmen. They survive, and Khaled cuts himself off from his family so as not to endanger them back home. In 1995, Khaled cements a friendship with dissident writer Hosam Zowa, whose work has attracted the ire of the Qaddafi regime. The danger the three men face shapes their relationship, as Hosam initially suspects Khaled of being a secret agent for Qaddafi. Eventually, though, their solidarity and mutual love of literature contribute to a tight bond including Mustafa, which holds strong even after Hosam and Mustafa return to Libya in 2011 to join the Arab Spring uprising while Khaled stays behind in London. Khaled’s elegiac ruminations never throttle the suspense as the characters continuously risk their lives for Libyan liberation. This is both a melancholic examination of the horrors of repression and a powerful ode to the freedom of speech. (Jan.)