My Friends

A Novel

By: Hisham Matar

Narrated by: Hisham Matar

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • A “masterly” (The New York Times, Editors’ Choice), “riveting” (The Atlantic) novel of friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Return

“A profound celebration of the sustaining power of friendship, of the ways we mold ourselves against the indentations of those few people whom fate presses against us.”—The Washington Post

ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST AND PUBLISHER WEEKLY’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, Time, NPR, BookPage

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION

One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat, and has the sense that his life has been changed forever. Obsessed by the power of those words—and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa—Khaled eventually embarks on a journey that will take him far from home, to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh.

There, thrust into an open society that is miles away from the world he knew in Libya, Khaled begins to change. He attends a protest against the Qaddafi regime in London, only to watch it explode into tragedy. In a flash, Khaled finds himself injured, clinging to life, unable to leave Britain, much less return to the country of his birth. To even tell his mother and father back home what he has done, on tapped phone lines, would expose them to danger.

When a chance encounter in a hotel brings Khaled face-to-face with Hosam Zowa, the author of the fateful short story, he is subsumed into the deepest friendship of his life. It is a friendship that not only sustains him but eventually forces him, as the Arab Spring erupts, to confront agonizing tensions between revolution and safety, family and exile, and how to define his own sense of self against those closest to him.

A devastating meditation on friendship and family, and the ways in which time tests—and frays—those bonds, My Friends is an achingly beautiful work of literature by an author working at the peak of his powers.

©2024 Hisham Matar (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“It is impossible to describe the profound depth and beauty of this book. My Friends is a breathtaking novel, every page a miracle and an affirmation.” (Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King)

I feel that I understand his culture and ethnicity and how it’s more interior and unsaid essence. Private thoughts and beliefs.

I liked the ongoing saga of his missing family and his need to immerse himself in western culture.

Quality of the writing

Beautifully narrated, powerful subject matter and very beautiful writing.Any book by this author is worth every minute.

Beautiful Writing but A Bit Flat in Storyline/historical context

This novel is beautifully written. The first half of it really drew me in. The MC half heartedly attends a protest with a friend and things go bad from there, permanently bonding the friends. From there it does begin to meander and become repetitive. I wish more had been explored about the history of the region and not as much intellectualizing over the MC thoughts/feelings. There’s a very subdued writing style throughout that is lovely but can feel flat at times. With that being said, I do recommend you read/listen to it. I enjoyed the narration.

This one hits close to home

As an Arab living most of my life in diaspora, this novel stuck with me. Many sentences of dialogue or reflections from the main characters felt too close to home. I come from country that suffered many ups and downs and still do ( Lebanon ) and I was in tears reading the anguish and the lossless feelings that Hisham conveys beautifully through this main Character. I bought the book and loved it and loved it even more listening to Hisham’s narrations. Highly recommend it.

Paints a very vivid picture

My Friends has a great deal of interesting, and insightful history about modern Libya and the destruction that Colonial Gaddafi did to the minds, bodies and souls of the Libyan people during his brutal dictatorship. However, the book also examines many other issues in great depth with the authors beautiful prose. The nature of friendship and what makes it last. What being a refugee with no way to go home does to a person’s identity and soul. How the idea of “home” can mean many different things. I thought this was an excellent listen.