Will I love My Friends?

My Friends is a quiet novel about big subjects – friendship, exile and resistance. It takes us back to a crucial moment, when Libyan officials opened fire on anti-Qaddafi protesters from inside the Libyan embassy in London, killing several and wounding others, including the novel’s narrator. This proves the turning point in his life, stranding him in London and cutting him off from his family back home. His friendships with two Libyan expats are put to the test as each responds in dramatically different ways to unfolding events back home and the ultimate collapse of the Qaddafi regime. Matar knows… show more.

This new novel from Libyan writer Matar is mainly a story about the love between friends, especially male friends, but that love is set against displacement and trauma and the psychological difficulties of being separated from one's country, family, culture, and identity.

A contemplative, deeply thoughtful novel, it is totally engaging and searingly honest, just as much about being a human being as it is about political ideologies or survivor guilt.