Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Return | 2016 | Hisham Matar | Buy |
| 2 | A Month in Siena | 2019 | Hisham Matar | Buy |
Hisham Matar’s non-fiction work includes two books that approach loss from different angles. The Return (2016) is a memoir about Matar’s trip to Libya after the fall of Qaddafi, searching for answers about his father’s disappearance. The book is part detective story, part family history, part meditation on what it means to go home to a place that has changed beyond recognition. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2017.
A Month in Siena (2019) is a shorter, more contemplative work about Matar’s month spent studying the paintings of the Sienese School. Through his encounters with Renaissance art, he explores grief, beauty, and the consolation that comes from looking carefully at the world.