Khaled leaves Libya for university but is unable to return as a result of the rash decision to protest outside the Libyan Embassy - his friendships with with compatriots Mustafa and Hosam render exile bearable…

I very much enjoyed this story of how one decision, one moment in time can completely alter the course of one’s life. Despite the heavy topic, the smooth writing and short chapters made it a little too easy to just keep reading a few more pages…

Life rarely works out as imagined, but this is a whole other level. Matar poignantly portrays the limbo of exile - the feeling of drifting off course, of knowing that your family is permanently out of reach, that their lives will continue whilst yours is paused indefinitely, that even if one day they are able to converge, you’ll have missed out on so much.

But it’s also a beautiful story of friendship and those crucial, deep friendships born out of understanding each other’s experiences without requiring an explanation - here, those friendships become keystones of Khaled’s exile - and how they can change over time. It’s also about the importance of writing and telling stories.

A poignant, smoothly-written story of the limbo of exile, deep friendship and storytelling.