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Anatomy of a Disappearance
Hisham Matar
2011, 224 pages
Fiction
Author Hisham Mata has written a portrait of a sensitive young boy named Nuri whose mother dies when he is 9 years old. He lives in a mysterious world with a father whose political affiliations force them to live in exile. Nuri hangs onto fading and little-understood memories of a sad but loving mother who was often ill. He lives a lonely existence with his uncommunicative and frequently absent father until they meet the lovely and young Mona while vacationing on the beach.
Nuri, then 13, wants her for himself, but she falls in love with his father, and she becomes his stepmother and ultimately his only parent when his father is kidnapped.
All of Nuri's intimate thoughts and his careful observations are revealed with beauty and sensitivity in Matar's novel. This is the story of a boy's journey to understand the father he felt he never really knew. Along the way, he discovers himself.
