Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2016 The Return is
at once a universal and an intensely personal tale. It is an exquisite
meditation on how history and politics can bear down on an individual life. And
yet Hisham Matar's memoir isn't just about the burden of the past, but the
consolation of love, literature and art. It is the story of what it is to be
human. Hisham Matar was nineteen when his father was kidnapped and taken to
prison in Libya. He would never see him again. Twenty-two years later, the fall
of Gaddafi meant he was finally able to return to his homeland. In this moving
memoir, the author takes us on an illuminating journey, both physical and
psychological; a journey to find his father and rediscover his country.
Author Biography
Born in New York to Libyan parents, Hisham Matar spent his childhood in Tripoli
and Cairo and has lived most of his adult life in England. His debut novel In
the Country of Men was published in twenty-nine languages and won numerous
international prizes as well as being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and
the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was
published to great acclaim in 2011. He lives in London and New York.
Shortlist, 2016 Costa Biography Award