My Friends.

"My Friends" by Hisham Matar is a luminous novel exploring the profound themes of friendship, family, and the harsh realities of exile. Growing up in Benghazi, young Khaled becomes captivated by a short story about a man being eaten by a cat, leading him to admire its enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa. His obsession propels him to the University of Edinburgh, where he witnesses a tragic protest against the Qaddafi regime and becomes an injured exile in England, cut off from his family for their safety. A chance encounter with Hosam Zowa in a hotel blossoms into a deep friendship that sustains Khaled through the Arab Spring and forces him to grapple with the agonizing tensions between revolution and safety, family and exile. This Pulitzer Prize-winning author's novel is a poignant meditation on how time tests and frays the bonds of friendship and family, beautifully capturing the struggle for self-definition in the face of profound loss and displacement.