In The Country of Men: A Novel by Hisham Matar | Historical Fiction Book Set in Libya | Perfect for Book Clubs & Literary Enthusiasts" (Note: Since the original title appears to be a book title, I've created an optimized version that includes the author name, genre, setting, and usage scenarios while keeping the original title intact as it's a published work.)

In the Country of Men, the first novel by exiled Libyan Hisham Matar is as much a story of sin, redemption, and reconciliation, as it is a condemnation of the evils that men do in the name of patriarchy and despotic revolutions. The narrator, nine-year old Suleiman, lives in a well-to-do neighborhood of Tripoli, where the ever-present fear of the Revolutionary Committees of the "Guide" (one of the many titles assumed by the dictator Muammar Qaddafi) hangs in the air like the sweltering desert heat that crosses the Sahara to be halted by the cool breezes of the Mediterranean. Suleiman is the child of an arranged marriage, like most in the culture; his mother was hurriedly wed at fourteen to a man nearly ten years her senior. Now, at twenty-three, his mother soothes her anger and resentment with bottles of "medicine" she covertly buys from a nearby baker. Suleiman's father is often gone on "business" trips, during which time his mother retreats to her bedroom and young Suleiman learns to adapt to a constant shift between living in a world where he is the child and a world where he becomes an adult.It would be anticlimactic to reveal the entire plot, or the final outcome, but if this were merely a story of very familiar family dysfunction, it would end there. The underlying thread of treachery and deceit only begins with the family. The much greater story involves the nature of who we are, when who we are depends on who we can trust and what we say we believe. Suleiman is a terribly conflicted boy trying to make sense of his world and find a place in it. His loyalties to each parent are constantly tested, while he struggles to understand the complexities of how those loyalties have become a part of his need for acceptance--by his parents, his friends, and eventually by the very forces that threaten to break his family apart.Suleiman's sheltered upbringing and naiveté come dangerously close to having tragic consequences for his family; he is drawn into the intrigue and suspense of the lives of adults in his life, including his father, who are part of a movement of protest against the dictatorship, and only by a fortunate turn of events is the tragedy averted.Hisham Matar has created, within In the Country of Men, a classic Bildungsroman that is more than just the story of growing up; it is a painful, yet poignant view of life through the eyes of a nine-year old boy who really thinks and acts like a nine-year old--confused, angry, impetuous, impatient, self-centered, even at times mean-spirited. Still, he is also loving, loyal, protective, intelligent, and wonderfully inquisitive. His character is so complex that it's hard to believe the author's insistence that the novel is not autobiographical.