Summary

This chapter is brief, but it documents the primary focus of Matar's book, his return. The chapter begins with Matar's mother allowing him to sit near the window, "to see [his] country" (35). He goes into a silent panic, writing, worrying, and wondering if his father had been able to witness the beauty of the Libyan coast on his way to prison. In this panic, he also recalls the moment, back in 1980, he "understood that [they] were not going back" to Libya (37). The pain stemming from this moment came not from staying in exile, but from realizing that he and his father were not the same person.

The first thing to strike him from the window of the plane is the color of the land, "rust and yellow" (37). When the plane touched down, Matar noted the date and the exact time, symbolizing how important...