Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Book of the month

Find reading inspiration on our Book of the Month forum.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

October Book of The Month Discussion - In the Country of Men

166 replies

TillyBookClub · 30/10/2007 11:22

This is the thread to come to for tonight's Book of the Month discussion and live author chat. Just a reminder, we'll kick off at 8pm and chat about the book amongst ourselves for an hour. And then Hisham Matar, our author for this month, will join us at 9pm to answer questions and give us the inside story. We'll probably wrap up around 10pm.

If you can't make it this evening but would like to ask Hisham a question or two, please post them here now and Hisham will post his answers later on.

See you here at 8pm...
Tx

OP posts:
fryalot · 30/10/2007 21:29

Hisham - I'll just have to keep refreshing Amazon then

MNHQ
CarrieonScreamingMumsnet · 30/10/2007 21:31

Is it weird to sit here listening to folks discussing your characters as if they were real people, or after five years of living with them do they feel real to you? is that how it has to feel when you are writing a novel?

HishamMatar · 30/10/2007 21:31

cosmicdancer,
Yes, I am afraid I have. It is a very unpleasant thing. But was useful in writing this book.

FlameInHell · 30/10/2007 21:32

The thought of sending my children away without knowing if I would see them again is heartbreaking

ChampagneSupernova · 30/10/2007 21:34

Ooh good question Carrie - please answer that one! Is it very strange to hear people dissecting your work like this?

MadamePlatypus · 30/10/2007 21:34

Hisham, do you think the Gadaffi is becoming more acceptable in the west? I googled the top Libyan news stories and they were all about oil treaties, Italy paying reparations for colonialism and Darfur peace talks.

yajorome · 30/10/2007 21:34

I agree. Sending away my son would be the most selfless thing I could do... am not sure that comes out right, but am hoping you know what I mean! It doesn't bear thinking about.

cosmicdancer · 30/10/2007 21:35

Thank you Hisham.

I also have personal experience and wondered as I read as the book as you describe it so well both from the alcoholic's and the alcoholic's family's perspective.

Loved the book by the way and it's great to get our individual questions answered.

HishamMatar · 30/10/2007 21:38

CarrieonScreamingMumsnet,
Not weird, but close to it. Very flattering too. The characters in the book don?t seem real in the way that my family and friends do. They exist in language and have oddly become more mysterious, not less, the more I got to know them on the page. For instance, I still cannot see Suleiman. I have no idea how he looks like. But were he to step into my study now, God forbid, I would recognise him. Writing the book I sometimes caught his scent. That was enough.

MadamePlatypus · 30/10/2007 21:39

Another question please - when did you decide what would happen to Kareem? Did you know he would have a 'happy' ending at the beginning of the book?

HishamMatar · 30/10/2007 21:41

MadamePlatypus,
?Acceptable in the West?? Yes. But less unjust to his own people, no.

beanymum · 30/10/2007 21:41

Good question madamplatypus. I would like to know if the character's destinies were planned at the beginning ar evolved as the book was written.

HishamMatar · 30/10/2007 21:45

MadamePlatypus,
I don?t plot before I write; so I rarely know what will happen next. I like it that way because it keeps me on my toes and reminds me that being the Author, the authority over the narrative, is an illusion. So, it was a complete surprise that things had turned out so well for Kareem. Or so well from Suleiman?s point of view. Kareem is lucky only in Suleiman?s imagination. Who knows how Kareem feels?

Original poster
TillyBookClub · 30/10/2007 21:47

Hisham, in light of your Gadaffi answer and also to pick up on a few requests a while back - could you recommend an accessible book about Libya and its history for those who want to find out more?

(feel free to do this at the end of the session, when it is a bit quieter)

OP posts:
beanymum · 30/10/2007 21:50

Hisham - would the Lybian government have a file open on you or would they not consdier you under their influence or a threat that could be contained anymore?

HishamMatar · 30/10/2007 21:51

TillyBookClub,
There is an excellent book by Mansour O. El-Kikhia, who is professor at the University of Texas, I think, called Libya's Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction. In it he unpicks the complexity of the Qaddafi rule. It fairly well written, and short. But very much written in an academic style. Still worth reading, I think.

HishamMatar · 30/10/2007 21:53

beanymum,
I would not know. But I would be very surprised if they didn't. After all, my father is held in one of their prisons, and has been since March 1990.

ChampagneSupernova · 30/10/2007 21:54

What has surprised you most about people's reactions to the book? (other than that you wrote it at all, if it was a secret )

yajorome · 30/10/2007 21:55

The execution scene was particularly horrific.

Do you despair the short attention span of people and countries? Do you have any hope that things will change in Libya - does what's happening in Myanmar change your views on what needs to be done by the outside world? Or are they two different situations that only seem similar on the surface?

HishamMatar · 30/10/2007 21:56

ChampagneSupernova,
Apart from the fact that it got published, the presumption that it is autobiographic.

beanymum · 30/10/2007 21:57

Hisham I'm very sorry to hear that your father has been a victim of the regime. Do you know what his "crime" was and do you have any contact with him?

MNHQ
CarrieonScreamingMumsnet · 30/10/2007 21:57

So sorry to hear about your father. I can't imagine how awful that must for you and your family.

HishamMatar · 30/10/2007 22:00

beanymum,
My father was one of the most prominent opponents to the dictatorship. We have no contact with him. The last letter he had smuggled to smuggle out and that had reached us was 1995.

fryalot · 30/10/2007 22:00

so sorry, hisham. Do you get any news of him?

beanymum · 30/10/2007 22:02

Well you have certainly opened up my eyes to the situation in Lybia - I suppose that your father does not know that you have written the book.