Random House
Review: Ron Charles, Washington Post
This spring marks a grim 40th anniversary. On April 17, 1984, after months of tension between Britain and Libya, an angry demonstration swelled outside the Libyan Embassy in London.
Outraged by Muammar Gaddafi’s murderous reign back home, dozens of Libyan students chanted slogans against the dictator.
Suddenly, from the embassy’s windows, shots were fired into the crowd. A 25-year-old British police officer was killed, and 10 demonstrators were wounded.
That carnage burns through Hisham Matar’s meditative new novel, My Friends. Matar, the son of Libyan parents, was too young to have been involved in the deadly 1984 protest, but he later settled in London, and much of his writing has explored the terror of living under the threat of Gaddafi, who once clawed…
