Hisham Matar

In 1979 Suleiman sees his father in the market square in Tripoli, but he is supposed to be away on business. Then as his friend's father also disappears, and people start to watch the house Suleiman starts to wonder if his father has disappeared for good.

Shortly after completing his searing work of non-fiction, The Return, Hisham Matar set off for Siena, a city he had never visited before. His plan was to see the paintings of the Sienese school, to immerse himself in the work of artists he admired perhaps above all others. This month in Siena would be an extraordinary period in the life of this writer: an immersion in art, a consideration of grief and violence, an intimate encounter with the city and its inhabitants. Hisham Matar's short book is the story of how art can console and disturb in equal measure. It is a profoundly moving contemplation of the relationship between art and the human condition.