The Return by Hisham Matar

Author:Hisham Matar
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Published: 2016-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

“In the 1970s I took part in the university student protest here in Benghazi,” the man went on. “I was arrested, taken to a prison in Tripoli. My mother—I’m her only child—was losing her mind. She asked who she could stay with in Tripoli and people told her of a woman who put up mothers of political prisoners. She was known for having an open house to these mothers who traveled the distance to visit their children. I never met this woman, because by the time I was released they told me she had left the country. But my mother, who passed away recently or else she would be here speaking these words, told me about the kind woman in Tripoli. She spent months in her house. And this woman, my mother told me, thought of a thousand tricks to distract my mother. Every week the two women cooked for the entire prison wing, 150 men. They sent us platefuls of the finest food. They sent books, pens and writings pads. The guards stole much, but much also reached us, and what reached us was enough.”

The moment he finished speaking that last line, my mother covered her face.

“We all know what Jaballa Matar did. But I came here tonight not so much for Jaballa or Hisham, but to tell you all what I know of this gracious woman and to thank her, although no amount of gratitude would be sufficient.”

Everyone stood up. When eventually the clapping stopped, the only words my mother could muster, barely audible, were “Thank you.”

—

Later that evening, back at the hotel, I asked Mother if it was true that she had housed mothers of prisoners.

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