- Hisham Matar
Infobox Writer
imagesize = 150px
name = Hisham Matar
caption =
birthdate = birth year and age|1970
birthplace =New York City ,New York ,United States of America
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation =Novelist ,Poet &Essayist
period = 2004–present
genre = fiction
subject =
movement =
notableworks = "In the Country of Men "Hisham Matar (born 1970)cite press release| title = The Man Booker Prize 2006 Shortlist| publisher = Booker Prize Foundation| date =
14 September ,2006 | url = http://www.themanbookerprize.com/pressoffice/release?r=27#titletop| accessdate = 2006-09-14] is aLibyan author. His debut novel "In the Country of Men " was shortlisted for the 2006Man Booker Prize .. Matar’s essays have appeared in theAsharq Alawsat ,The Independent ,The Guardian ,The Times andThe New York Times . He currently lives and writes inLondon .Background
Hisham Matar was born in
New York City . He spent his childhood in America with his Libyan parents while his father was working for the Libyan delegation to theUnited Nations . When he was three years old, his family went back toTripoli ,Libya , where he spent his early childhood. Due to political persecutions by theGaddafi regime, in 1979 his father was accused of being a reactionary to the Libyan revolutionary regime and was forced to flee the country with his family. They lived in exile inEgypt where Hisham and his brother completed their schooling inCairo .cite web| title = Hisham Matar| publisher = Penguin UK| accessdate = 2006-11-16| url = http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000070485,00.html] [cite web| title = Hisham Matar| publisher = The Guardian| date =29 June ,2006 | accessdate = 2006-06-29| url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,1808361,00.html] In 1986 he moved toLondon ,United Kingdom , where he continued his studies and received a degree inarchitecture . In 1990, while he was still inLondon , his father, a political dissident, was kidnapped in Cairo. He has been reported missing ever since. However, in 1996, the family received two letters with his father's handwriting stating that he was kidnapped by the Egyptian secret police, handed over to the Libyan regime, and imprisoned in the notorious Abu-Salim prison in the heart ofTripoli . Since that date, there has been no more information about his father's whereabouts.Hisham Matar began writing poetry and experimented in theatre. He began writing his first novel "In the Country of Men" in early 2000. In the autumn of 2005, the publishers Penguin International signed a two-book deal with him, and the novel was a huge success.
Awards and recognition
His first novel, "
In the Country of Men ", was published in July 2006 and received accolades from such notable figures asJ M Coetzee ,Anne Michaels andNadeem Aslam . [cite web| title = In the Country of Men| publisher = The Independent| accessdate = 2006-09-24| url = http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article1735206.ece] It went on to be shortlisted for theMan Booker Prize . [cite web| title = The Man Booker Award| publisher = The Man & Booker groups| accessdate = 2006-10-10| url = http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/books/47] , and was shortlisted for theGuardian First Book Award 2006. [cite web| title = The Guardian First Book Award| publisher = The Guardian| accessdate = 2006-11-10| url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/fba2006/0,,1855769,00.html] It has won the 2007Commonwealth First Book Award forEurope andSouth Asia , the 2007Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize , the ItalianPremio Vallombrosa Gregor von Rezzori , the ItalianPremio Internazionale Flaiano (Sezione Letteratura) and the inauguralArab American National Museum Book Award. "In the Country of Men " has been translated into 22 languages.In 2008 Hisham Matar became the Mary Amelia Cummins Harvey Visiting Fellow Commoner at
Girton College ,University of Cambridge ,England .Bibliography
* "In the Country of Men", Viking-Penguin, 2006, ISBN 0-670-91639-0
See also
*
English literature
*Libya
*Arabic literature
*Arab-American literature References
External links
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article1171361.ece Independent Autobiography]
* [http://www.x-bout.com/awe/jul06.html African Writers' Evening]
* [http://imtidad.blogspot.com/2006/07/african-writers-evening-and-more.html Imtidad Blog on Hisham Matar]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.