In the Country of Men (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Mama: Add a description of this character.
• Moosa
• Baba
• Masoud
• Osama
• Adnan
• Sharief
• Salma
• Slooma
• Nasser
• Khaled
• Mustafa
• Najwa
• Siham
• Kareem
• Suleiman
• Bahloul
• Judge Yaseen
• Faraj
• Shahryar
• Rashid
• Cathy

Quotes edit see section history

• “Nationalism is as thin as a thread, perhaps that's why many feel it must be anxiously guarded.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• If love starts somewhere, if it is a hidden force that is brought out by a person, like light off a mirror, for me that person was her. There was anger, there was pity, even the dark warm embrace of hate, but always love and always the joy that surrounds the beginning of love.

  Highlighted by 21 Kindle customers

• Nationalism is as thin as a thread, perhaps that’s why many feel it must be anxiously guarded.

  Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers

• How readily and thinly we procure these fictional selves, deceiving the world and what we might have become if only we hadn’t got in the way, if only we had waited to see what might have become of us.

  Highlighted by 18 Kindle customers

• It’s one thing not to fear death, another to sing under its sword.

  Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers

• Why does our country long for us so savagely? What could we possibly give her that hasn’t already been taken?

  Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers

• We drift through allegiances, those we are born into and those we are claimed by, always estranging ourselves.

  Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers

• Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo. Be careful.”

  Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers

• How much of him is there in me? Can you become a man without becoming your father?

  Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers

• Something was absent in the stadium, something that could no longer be relied on. Apart from making me lose trust in the assumption that “good things happen to good people,” the televised execution of Ustath Rashid would leave another, more lasting impression on me, one that has survived well into my manhood, a kind of quiet panic, as if at any moment the rug could be pulled from beneath my feet. After Ustath Rashid’s death I had no illusions that I or Baba or Mama were immune from being burned by the madness that overtook the National Basketball Stadium.

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

• it’s a sign of madness, I know, to claim to know what is in another man’s heart.

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Cairo
• Libya
• Tripoli
• Gergarish, Libya: A newly constructed (in 1979, when the majority of the book is set) suburb of Tripoli. Home to Suleiman, the protagonist of the book.
• Lepcis Magna, Libya: Not far from Tripoli, on the coast of Libya, containing significant Roman remains
• Martyr's Square, Tripoli, Libya: An area in the centre of Tripoli
• Cairo, Egypt
• America
• Ustath
• Benghazi
• Heaven
• Italian Coffee House
• Scotland
• Bridge

First Sentence edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Hisham Matar (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Man Booker Prize (Finalist, 2006, Shortlist)
• Arab American Book Award (2007: Adult Fiction)
• Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (2007: South Asia and Europe)
• National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist, 2007: Fiction)
• Ondaatje Prize (2007)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR6113.A87 I515
• Dewey: 823.92

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary