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Anatomy of a Disappearance: A Novel
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Anatomy of a Disappearance: A Novel
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Anatomy of a Disappearance: A Novel
Audiobook5 hours

Anatomy of a Disappearance: A Novel

Written by Hisham Matar

Narrated by Steve West

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

Nuri is a young boy when his mother dies. It seems that nothing will fill the emptiness that her strange death leaves behind in the Cairo apartment he shares with his father. Until they meet Mona, sitting in her yellow swimsuit by the pool of the Magda Marina hotel. As soon as Nuri sees her, the rest of the world vanishes. But it is Nuri's father with whom Mona falls in love and whom she eventually marries. And their happiness consumes Nuri to the point where he wishes his father would disappear.

Nuri will, however, soon regret what he wished for. His father, long a dissident in exile from his homeland, is taken under mysterious circumstances. And, as the world that Nuri and his stepmother share is shattered by events beyond their control, they begin to realize how little they knew about the man they both loved.

Anatomy of a Disappearance
is written with all the emotional precision and intimacy that have won Hisham Matar tremendous international recognition. In a voice that is delicately wrought and beautifully tender, he asks: When a loved one disappears, how does their absence shape the lives of those who are left?


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 23, 2011
ISBN9780307966773
Unavailable
Anatomy of a Disappearance: A Novel

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Reviews for Anatomy of a Disappearance

Rating: 3.5511335227272727 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

88 ratings12 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Incredibly beautiful writing and a heart-breaking work. Yet I was left with several unanswered questions when I finished this novel, and even those that were answered I didn't feel entirely satisfied with. An entirely worthwhile read, but be aware that this is a book you'll value more for the writing than the story.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Quiet. Contemplating.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is beautifully written and one to read every word slowly to appreciate the poetry of the language. Less is more.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a mannerly constrained small novel about one boy’s three mothers and only father, all of them unknown quantities to the child they parent. It is about the deceit that can be perpetrated among a cabal of cooperation. It is about the strength of father-son relationships that can persist even in the father’s absence and about the delusions and self-deception the very young hold onto about their parents even when they can stand on their own.10-year-old Cairene, Nuri el-Alfi, loses his mother to an apparent suicide. Nuri reaches his teens before his father marries a young woman, Mona, whom Nuri adores. His adoration becomes Oedipal. Some years later, he and Mona are in Paris, expecting his father to join them for a vacation while Nuri is on break from his English boarding school. Here they learn that his father has been abducted from a woman's apartment in Geneva where Nuri's father had been, apparently conducting his endless political business.For the next 10 years, Nuri makes efforts to find out what happened to his father as he completes his education and fulfills his father's ambitions for him. Inexorably, the day comes when he learns the truth about his father and about someone else. But can Nuri accept these revelations? Matar ends his book in ambiguity.Matar is a master of tone, of lean prose, of tender consideration of his characters, and of creating an atmosphere of inevitability that is characteristic of Greek tragedy, a form this novel obviously resembles. An excellent novel by the author of In the Country of Men.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The demarcation line between "classic literary themes" and "plain old clichés" is sometimes so tenuous as to be practically non-existent. This is what I found myself thinking upon reading "Anatomy of a Disappearance". The protagonist of Hisham Matar's second novel (after the Booker-nominated In the Country of Men) is Nuri, the son of an ex-minister of an unnamed Middle Eastern country who has lived in exile in Paris and then Egypt ever since that country's "beloved king" was deposed in the late 60s. At the age of 12 years, Nuri loses his mother to a mysterious illness. Two years later, tragedy strikes again when his father is abducted in Switzerland, presumably by his political enemies, an event which indelibly marks the boy's life. This is a coming-of-age novel narrated, predictably, by the protagonist's older, wiser self. The plot features, surprise surprise, a young woman who acts as catalyst for Nuri's sexual awakening. This is Mona, Nuri's twenty-something flirtatious stepmother. So we have, in one broad stroke, the age-old love triangle, with an Oedipal complex thrown into the mix. In complete contrast to Mona stands Naima, the loyal, faithful servant who doubles as the narrator's surrogate mother. It has become fashionable for literary novels to incorporate popular, populist elements - in this case, the dissident's disappearance gives the plot a thriller-cum-mystery element. Many narrative threads however remain unresolved, a de rigueur approach for any novelist wishing to maintain highbrow credentials.An underwhelming and unresolved plot, a narrator who is not particularly likeable - what is it then that makes this flawed novel a worthwhile read? For me, it is Matar's undeniable mastery of language, which makes an otherwise unassuming book blossom in flowing, poetic prose. Take the title - in four words and just two nouns, Matar contrasts the themes of physical presence and loss, whilst hinting at the novel's underlying eroticism and the mystery at its heart. The book is rich with such images and hidden delights which make up for the "clichéd" thematic and narrative elements.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Is it possible to be enthralled by the writing and yet left wanting by the story of a book? Of course it is - and that's what happened for me with Anatomy of a Disappearance. The story centers around Nuri, who is twelve years old when his mother dies. Within a year, his father has remarried a younger woman, Mona. Nuri has complicated feelings about that, at least partially related to his jealousy of his father because of his own crush on Mona. Everything changes, though, when Nuri's father is abducted while they are on vacation in Geneva. The circumstances surrounding the abduction - where he was taken from and why he was there, why he was taken, what happens now - are all part of what Nuri wants to know. However, Nuri is still just a kid attending boarding school in England and is limited in how he can follow up on those mysteries. Also limiting him is the tendency of everyone around him to avoid his questions, or answer with half-truths. Reading this book is a sensual experience. Descriptions abound of small details: the quality of light, sounds, smells. Nuri is a keen observer of all those things, but he doesn't quite understand people, even by the end of the book, by which time he is twenty-four. I wanted more resolution on some threads but realize that the book's scope is the aftermath of the disappearance, and often in real life we don't get all the answers we want. Nuri's experience is defined by the fact that he's only left with the space his father should have filled and only able to examine the edges of his father's existence. Nevertheless, while I enjoyed the experience of reading the book, I can't say I felt satisfied by it.Recommended for: people who enjoy beautiful writing, orphans, people who went to boarding school.Quote: "So old and persistent did Mother's unhappiness seem that I had never stopped to ask its true cause. Nothing is more acceptable than that which we are born into."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Parents are like gods to their children, immortal. However, when they die, or in this case disappear, it leaves a gaping hole. Nuri is 12 when his mother dies. Only a few years later, his father disappears. At such a young age, it is difficult, if not impossible to reconstruct who his parents were when he never knows them as an adult. He is always kept in the dark of who they were. He doesn’t even know what his mother dies of or of what his father did for the King of Egypt. Realizing who they are after his father’s disappearance provides the most powerful aspects to the book. Most of the book focuses on Nuri’s obsession with Mona, his step-mother. He meets her on a beach in Alexandria. Much of his adolescence is spent obsessing over her, in some cases, dreaming of being with her without his father. When his father is mysteriously abducted many truths about Mona, his mother, and his father are revealed. I was originally under the impression that this story was timely due to the Arab Spring revolutions this year, highlighting the difficult environment of regime change and the resulting disappearance of loved ones. However, these events can take place anywhere. It could be Egypt, Iraq, Libya, or Chile, Mexico, Guatemala. It unites all these stories into one story of loss and searching. Maybe that is the intention, when someone disappears, not dies, but vanishes, how to deal with that loss. The feeling drives the narrative. A confused son with a missing father, who is trying to make sense of what happened, who he is, and who he is going to be. Common problems for any young man made more confusing with a lost father and only a young step-mother to look out for you. A stepmother whose involvement may have doomed the father and the son. A great narrative and emotional storytelling, but the background circumstances feel very generic. Favorite Passages:"All that I did not know about my father- his private life, his thoughts, why he was kidnapped and by whom, what he had actually done to provoke such actions, where he was at this moment, whether he could be counted among the living or the dead- was like a mask that suffocated me." p. 101"But the most significant yet subtle change was in the eyes. The had become less certain, more wary. He seemed to have given way to the inevitability of his doubts." p. 183"I felt dizzy, as if comprehending the scale of things, for the first time and with it the vast yet intricate reality of the physical world and my precarious presence in it. I held my head and stared at the blades of grass at my feet. I counted the stiches round the leather of my shoes. I wanted this world to still. I wanted to fix it and be fixed within it. But everything was on the move, the clouds, the wind." p. 186"You see, most men spend a lifetime trying to understand their father. p. 194"It was if, in the eleven years I had been gone, a terrible truth had disquieted the city of my childhood." p. 195
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The book “Anatomy of a Disappearance” is narrated by Nuri el- Alfi, a 12-year-old boy from Cairo in the early 1970’s. Nuri comes from a family of wealth and prosperity. When his mother dies unexpectedly it leaves Nuri and his father Kamal, in a struggle to define their relationship without the bond that held them together. A few years later Kamal and Nuri take a vacation to the beach where they meet Mona, who becomes a constant source of desire for both men. Mona is a beautiful woman in her mid twenties of Egyptian origin who grew up in London. Kamal and Mona marry a short time later which leads to Nuri being sent to a English boarding school because of his desire for Mona, who loves the attention that both men pay to her.About two years later Kamal decides to take the family on a Holiday vacation to Switzerland. Mona and Nuri arrive immediately and wait for Kamal to join them a few days later but he never shows. Mona learns that Kamal had been kidnapped from a house in Geneva, the two travel to Geneva only to find out very little about the kidnapping of Kamal. Over the years very little is known/reviled about Kamal and what happened to him. Nuri talks about finding his father but never really does anything about till his mid 20’s when he finds out a little bit of information and then lets it go.This book left me with a lot of unanswered questions. I felt lost thru the book like I was missing something possibly because I didn’t read Matar’s previous novel. In my opinion this book had no real plot or character development to speak of. I think that the potential was surely missed in this book and by the writer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hidden depths.I read this for a recent book group. I enjoyed it, taking it purely at face value. I then discussed it within our group, several of whom were of Arab origin, and suddenly I discovered whole new levels of the story that made sense to my Arab friends but which had completely passed me by. Yet I didn't detect the more floral language of an Arab writer in the narrative, it didn't have the feel, to me, of a book by an Arab writer.The story is told by Nuri, just twelve when it begins with his encounter with the enigmatic Mona on a hotel beach in Egypt. Although Nuri has a teenage crush on Mona, it is his father whom she eventually marries. Thus begins a complicated relationship between the three of them, which is dramatically affected by the disappearance of Nuri's father whilst holidaying in Switzerland.Much of this story is semi-autobiographical, Mr Matar's own father was abducted from the family's Cairo home by Egypt's Mukhabarat, handed over to the Libyan government and imprisoned in Abu Salim prison. He has not been heard from since a letter smuggled out in 1995. Hisham Matar must be well aware of the angst this causes a teenage boy, the terrible lack of closure caused by the unknown.The characterisations are excellent, particularly that of Nuri. The pace of the novel reflects the feelings of a slightly introverted young boy as he is forced to come to terms with the loss of his father. Also very topical with the events that have unfolded recently in Libya.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This novel is narrated by Nuri el-Alfi, a 12 year old boy from Cairo on vacation in Alexandria in the early 1970s with his father Kamal, a ex-minister who has fallen out of favor with the current Egyptian government and is engaged in dissident activities against it. Nuri's mother has recently and unexpectedly died, and he and his father struggle to redefine their relationship in the absence of the woman that both loved deeply. While on a beach, Nuri sees a beautiful woman in a yellow bikini who is trying to extract a splinter from her foot. She is gratified when he is able to remove it, and as she walks toward her hotel, Nuri and Kamal follow her with their eyes, in a mixture of admiration and desire. Kamal soon makes the acquaintance of Mona, who is midway in age between Nuri and Kamal. She is of Egyptian descent, but grew up and attended university in London. After a short courtship, Kamal and Mona are married, and she moves into the apartment that Kamal and Nuri share. Nuri continues to be entranced by Mona, who relishes the attention that he pays to her. Kamal becomes aware of Nuri's affection toward Mona, and decides to send him to an English boarding school.Two years later the family decides to take a Christmas holiday in Switzerland. Kamal arranges for Nuri and Mona to meet at a hotel in Montreux, where he will join them later. Days pass, but neither receive any calls or information from Kamal until Mona learns of his kidnapping from the home of a woman in Geneva. The two travel there immediately, but they receive little information about the crime, or the relationship between the woman and Kamal.As the investigation continues into Kamal's kidnapping, Nuri continues his studies in England, while Mona lives alone in Cairo. The tension created by Kamal's disappearance and his mysterious prior life, combined with the attraction that Kamal and Mona share for each other, deeply affect both of them and alters their relationship with each other.Anatomy of a Disappearance is a beautifully constructed novel which was a pleasure to read. However, the story had far less impact on me than I would have expected. Nuri's expressed desire to uncover what happened to his father was not matched by his actions, as he passively accepted lies and half truths about Kamal, his dissident activities, the events that led to his kidnapping, and the woman in Geneva. In addition, the characters and motivations of Mona and Kamal remained a mystery throughout the book, and I was left unsatisfied and unmoved at its completion. This wasn't a bad read, but it is a book that will have no impact on me, unlike Matar's excellent debut novel In the Country of Men.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    2.5 starsWhen a young arab boy, Nuri, loses his mother to illness, he and his dissident father must emotionally support each other in their apartment in Cairo. However, bikini-clad Mona arrives in their lives, and Nuri must watch as his advances go unnoticed and she falls in love with his father. But when Nuri’s father disappears under mysterious circumstances, Nuri must come to grips with his relationships with his father and Mona while trying to find his own place in the world.Hisham Matar does a good job of painting the world of Nuri el-Alfi, an adolescent Arab boy living in Cairo whose mother has died and father is an exiled confidant of a murdered King. Matar frames the circumstances of Nuri’s existence and lends emotional depth to him and his longings. Matar’s writing is very readable, in fact quite comfortable. Unfortunately, the story languishes after the initial setup. Anatomy of a Disappearance could have turned into either a thriller or a coming-of-age story, but it doesn’t do either one. Matar stops short of allowing the reader to really understand Nuri and he doesn’t provide depth to any of the other characters. Nuri is an observer who isn’t very observant surrounded by people who don’t say much of anything. So many questions are left unanswered that they story loses any emotional weight. While Nuri says that he misses his father and wishes he would come back, he really doesn’t do anything to try and uncover any truths. The few nuggets of information Nuri does find out just fall in his lap. While Matar’s writing is lyrical and his scenes are beautifully constructed, by the time we reach the ending, the most important plot question remains untouched and the story concludes with a "twist" that really doesn't have much punch for either Nuri or the reader. Anatomy of a Disappearance begins as a promising seed, but Matar fails to harvest a ripe story leaving the reader to watch it wither on the vine neglected.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Anatomy Of A Disappearance is the sequel to author, Hisham Matar's book 'In The Country Of Men'.The story sets off with a twelve year old boy named Nuri, whose mother just died, leaving Nuri in the care of his maid and his distant father, who was once an high official in the Libyan government and is against the Gadhafi forces.While on vacation, Nuri notices a beautiful woman in a yellow swim suit sitting at the side of the pool cleaning her foot, walking over to her, Nuri begins to clean her foot and sets in motion a future he has no control over.Using Nuri's adolescent enamour of her, Mona manipulates Nuri's father into marrying her. As soon as they are married, Mona sets Nuri up to come upon her while she is showering and convinces Nuri's dad to ship him off to boarding school. Against his father's wishes, he sends Nuri away. At school, Nuri learns about himself and his family and the history that surrounds them all. Then Kamal Pasha, Nuri's dad, disappears and Nuri is left with a step-mother he doesn't like while the events of his father's past unfolds and we learn how his actions have helped to shape Nuri's future.I found the "memoir" to be an easy read, it could be easily read in one afternoon. I didn't get the feeling that it was a memoir, more like a work of fiction about an pubescent young man and the women who help steer his life. I wasn't impressed with his stalking Mona on numerous occasions, his vying for her attention with his father was equally disturbing to read. I thought Nuri to be a rather unlikeable boy who didn't seem to have much of a backbone and perverted thoughts about the women in his life. There was no depth in Nuri's character and I couldn't find any relation to him at all.I didn't have the opportunity to read Hisham Matar's prequel to this novel, and it may have helped with some of the back story, 'Anatomy of a Disappearance' left me with more questions than answers as I found the plot to be spasmodic and irregular, the characters apathetic and obstinate and the dialogue devoid of emotion.