His father Jabala Matar in 1971

When I first heard Hisham Matar speak at the American library in Paris last December, it was obvious that he was not just a writer telling a tragic story. His intensity, his severity for mediocre questions, his pause before answering, were all impressive. I immediately sensed a very special mind. He had come to talk about his latest book, « The Return » which was just translated into French by Gallimard (La Terre qui les sépare) and, this week, he was just awarded the Pulitzer prize for biography.

Author Hisham Matar ©-Diana Matar

Born in 1970 in New York, where his father was representing Libya at the UN, Hisham Matar was raised in Tripoli and Cairo until he decided to go to boarding school in England at 15. Thus his impeccable english and very International life.

One day in March 1990, he woke up learning that his father had been abducted by the Egyptian police and emprisoned in Abu Salim in Lybia by Qaddafi. He never saw him again and still does not know when or how he died.

“The Return” is the story of a quest for truth in history. Not exactly a biography as the Pulitzer named it, but a long enquiry on how his father, an enemy of the regime,  might have been emprisoned and killed. Returning to Libya after Qaddafi’s fall in 2011, and meeting his uncles who had all been emprisoned but were alive, was a long and painful quest. And the book would be incredibly depressing to read if his style was not so exceptional.

When he read from the book at the American library in Paris, one could immediately sense the briliance of his style. Hisham Matar could write about any topic, his voice would be exceptional. And this is what convinced me of reading this dark story where even his brother Ziad, is under threat in his boarding school in Switzerland.

When he steps back into Lybia, Hisham writes : “There it was, the land. Rust and yellow. The color of newly healed skin. Perhaps I will finally be released. The land got darker. Green sprouting, thinly covering hills. And, suddenly, my childhood sea.”

Written as a detective story and polished like a literary gem, “The Return” is a book that will remain in everyone’s library as a classic. (Random House and Gallimard)