Born in 1970 in New York to Libyan parents, he spent his childhood between Tripoli and Cairo. A symbol of contemporary Libyan literature, he fled to Egypt with his family at the age of nine when his father Jaballa was accused of opposing Mu'ammar Gaddafi's regime. In 1986 he moved to London, where he lives and works. His In the Country of Men, winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2007 for Best Debut, is a grim description of the Libyan regime in the late 1970s, a riot of power marked by interceptions, book burnings, accusations, tortures and executions broadcast on television. In 2011, he released Anatomy of a Disappearance featuring the twelve-year-old Nuri who grows up, like the author, under the sign of the mysterious disappearance of her father figure. With his memoir, The Return, the autobiographical narrative that unites all Matar's work reaches full maturity and is reflected in the report of his return to his homeland in 2012, after decades away from his loved ones due to forced exile. The work, heralded by Colm Tóibín as «an exciting tale of love and hope, and also a touching meditation on pain and loss» won the 2017 Folio Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

(photo: © Leonardo Cendamo)