What an informative, terrifying book. The events take place during the 1990's but it feels like the 40's, from the sweeping across border arrest (very James Bond) to Matar's childhood spent at boarding school under a false name. His story of an elite upbringing in North Africa is not something I had read before either. The total las of records of his father's death remains shocking in the modern age, the sinking horror of never, ever being able to know contradicts so much of the modern world. The book isn't perfect, it sags in the 3rd quarter and the 20 year imprisonment of Matar's uncles is glossed over, but I can forgive that for the book's originality.