Hirsham Matar's My Friends was published in 2023 and tells the story of a young man named Khaled, who grew up in the unstable streets of Benghazi, Libya. There, Khaled learns the story of a man who gets eaten by a cat. After learning more about the story's author, Khaled becomes obsessed with the story and the man who wrote it. And he spends much of his life trying to learn more about the reclusive author, a man named Hosam Zowa, and his craft of writing. His journey takes him to the University of Edinburgh, where he learns more about the world, writing, and his home country. He becomes actively involved in politics, which ultimately leads him to finding the author, who acts as a mentor to him as Khaled uncovers more about the world around him (and the strange short story he heard as a boy).
When it was published, Matar's novel received very positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. The novel was likewise longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, which recognizes some of the finest fiction published each year. In their glowing review of the novel, The Guardian called it "equally delicate, intellectually and emotionally, and equally bold in its formal arrangement."
