Born in New York City, Hisham Matar's family returned to their home country of Libya where he spent his early childhood. The family fled to Egypt in 1979 where they lived in exile before moving to London in 1986. Matar is a qualified architect and wrote poetry and essays, before publishing his debut novel In the Country of Men, which was shortlisted for The Man Booker prize and won the Ondaatji Prize in 2006. The publishing world is keenly awaiting the follow-up to his hugely successful debut.

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