Anatomy of a Disappearance

A Novel

By: Hisham Matar

Narrated by: Khalid Abdalla

Nuri is a young boy when his mother dies. It seems that nothing will fill the emptiness that her strange death leaves behind in the Cairo apartment he shares with his father. Until they meet Mona, sitting in her yellow swimsuit by the pool of the Magda Marina hotel. As soon as Nuri sees her, the rest of the world vanishes. But it is Nuri’s father with whom Mona falls in love and whom she eventually marries. And their happiness consumes Nuri to the point where he wishes his father would disappear.

Nuri will, however, soon regret what he wished for. His father, long a dissident in exile from his homeland, is taken under mysterious circumstances. And, as the world that Nuri and his stepmother share is shattered by events beyond their control, they begin to realize how little they knew about the man they both loved.

Anatomy of a Disappearance is written with all the emotional precision and intimacy that have won Hisham Matar tremendous international recognition. In a voice that is delicately wrought and beautifully tender, he asks: When a loved one disappears, how does their absence shape the lives of those who are left?

©2011 Hisham Matar (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

“For Western readers, what often seemed lacking [in the coverage of the Arab Spring] was an authentic interpreter and witness, someone who could speak across cultures and make us feel the abundant miseries that fueled the revolt. No one plays this role, in my view, as powerfully, as Hisham Matar…Matar writes in English, in extraordinarily powerful and densely evocative prose: he seems uniquely poised to play the role of literary ambassador between two worlds…” (The New York Times)

“Sculpted in a prose of clutter-free, classical precision . . . a pure demonstration of the strange alchemy of fiction.” (The Independent, UK)

“A tenderly written novel with Shakespearean themes, it can be read as a deeply personal account of the losses that tyranny and exile produce.” (The Times Literary Supplement)

Anatomy of Disappearance

Powerful novel. Very moving narration. Hisham Matar and Steve West at their best. Felt like playing it again.

Deeply moving

Beautiful, deeply moving memoir. Excellent reading. Incredible story. Superb writing. Could I say more ? No. Highly recommend this book.