Summary

This chapter details Matar’s first meeting with the dictator’s son, Seif el-Islam, and their subsequent communications negotiating for information on Matar’s father. His brother Ziad accompanied him to the meeting, which began with a “bizarre exchanges” of seemingly friendly “nonsense” (175). Immediately after hearing the bare facts of the case, Seif promised to bring the brothers information “whether it is good news or bad news” (176). The dictator’s son asked both Ziad and Hisham to return to Libya, telling them, “Libya is your country” (177). The meeting concluded with the brothers listing their demands from the regime: information on the fate of their father, the release of their two uncles and two cousins in Abu Salim, and the return of their family’s house in Tripoli, which had been stolen. “Consider it done,” exclaimed Seif, before ending the meeting (178).

Matar did...