Hisham Matar (b. 1970)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Born in New York City to Libyan parents, Hisham Matar spent his childhood in Tripoli and then in Cairo. He has lived most of his life, since the age of fifteen, in London. He is the author of the novels In the Country of Men and Anatomy of a Disappearance, and the memoirs The Return and A Month in Siena. He has won numerous prizes, including a Pulitzer, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His work has been translated to more than 30 languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in London and New York City, where he is a professor at Barnard College, Columbia University.