My Friends
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Hisham Matar
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By:
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Hisham Matar
About this listen
A “masterly” (The New York Times, Editors’ Choice), “riveting” (The Atlantic) novel of friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile, from the Booker Prize-nominated and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return.
“A profound celebration of the sustaining power of friendship, of the ways we mold ourselves against the indentations of those few people whom fate presses against us.” (The Washington Post)
A luminous novel of friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile, from the Booker Prize-nominated and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return.
One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat, and has the sense that his life has been changed forever. Obsessed by the power of those words—and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa—Khaled eventually embarks on a journey that will take him far from home, to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh.
There, thrust into an open society that is miles away from the world he knew in Libya, Khaled begins to change. He attends a protest against the Qaddafi regime in London, only to watch it explode into tragedy. In a flash, Khaled finds himself injured, clinging to life, unable to leave Britain, much less return to the country of his birth. To even tell his mother and father back home what he has done, on tapped phone lines, would expose them to danger.
When a chance encounter in a hotel brings Khaled face-to-face with Hosam Zowa, the author of the fateful short story, he is subsumed into the deepest friendship of his life. It is a friendship that not only sustains him but eventually forces him, as the Arab Spring erupts, to confront agonizing tensions between revolution and safety, family and exile, and how to define his own sense of self against those closest to him.
A devastating meditation on friendship and family, and the ways in which time tests—and frays—those bonds, My Friends is an achingly beautiful work of literature by an author working at the peak of his powers.
©2024 Hisham Matar (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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About the Creator and Performer
Critic reviews
“It is impossible to describe the profound depth and beauty of this book. My Friends is a breathtaking novel, every page a miracle and an affirmation.” (Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King)
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- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, Scott Merriman
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.
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Hmm
- By Morgan Meaux on 08-22-24
By: Freida McFadden
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Starship Troopers
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job.
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The definitive version!
- By Kristopher G. Hesson on 10-03-24
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Fahrenheit 451
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Tim Robbins
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
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Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."
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Wish I Hadn't Cliff Noted This in High School
- By Joel on 03-27-17
By: Ray Bradbury
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The Mistake
- By: K. L. Slater
- Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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You think you know the truth about the people you love. But one discovery can change everything.... Eight-year-old Billy goes missing one day, out flying his kite with his sister Rose. Two days later he is found dead. Sixteen years on, Rose still blames herself for Billy's death. How could she have failed to protect her little brother? Rose has never fully recovered from the trauma, and one of the few people she trusts is her neighbour Ronnie, who she has known all her life.
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How much do we really know about the ones we love?
- By T. West on 12-03-17
By: K. L. Slater
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Brain Damage
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now, she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her...before he finishes the job he started.
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Who Else Laughed, Cried, and Shuddered?
- By Jennifer Chichester on 09-16-22
By: Freida McFadden
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Mary Jane
- By: Amy Herzog
- Narrated by: Rachel McAdams, April Matthis, Brenda Wehle, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 16 mins
- Original Recording
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Academy Award nominee Rachel McAdams stars in Mary Jane, a poignant and intimate drama following a single mother’s journey caring for her chronically ill young son. Set in New York City, the play unfolds in two parts—Mary Jane's small Queens apartment and a pediatric hospital. With unflinching honesty and unexpected humor, we witness Mary Jane's tireless devotion, her interactions with medical professionals, and her struggle to maintain her sense of self.
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Amazing performance
- By Andrew Reynolds on 12-28-24
By: Amy Herzog
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Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
- By: Stephen Fry, Washington Irving, M.R. James, and others
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, Halloween approaches. Come, brave listener, pull up a chair, and spend some time with master storyteller Stephen Fry as he tells us some of his favourite ghost stories of all time, in truly terrifying spatial audio. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow to the tortured spirits of M.R. James, from Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying tale of a doppelganger to Charlotte Riddell’s Open Door that should definitely stay shut, join Stephen as he tells you some truly terrifying tales.
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Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
By: Stephen Fry, and others
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A slender novel of epic power, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men hurtling through space—not towards the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts—from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan—have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below.
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Dull
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What listeners say about My Friends
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- Coco likes books
- 02-22-24
Paints a very vivid picture
My Friends has a great deal of interesting, and insightful history about modern Libya and the destruction that Colonial Gaddafi did to the minds, bodies and souls of the Libyan people during his brutal dictatorship. However, the book also examines many other issues in great depth with the authors beautiful prose. The nature of friendship and what makes it last. What being a refugee with no way to go home does to a person’s identity and soul. How the idea of “home” can mean many different things. I thought this was an excellent listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Vly Summit
- 05-19-24
A beautiful book
Full of the sense of time passing in the life of the narrator and his friends. A short course in Libyan history and culture given in the best way, through the persona of the narrator. Exile's sadness and security measures by the heart. Wonderful!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Tommy
- 09-03-24
Interesting and Complex Protagonist
Wonderful story about the life of a man who left Libya for college and then couldn’t go back for 30+ years because of Muammar Gaddafi and his regime. You get to know Khaled so well and you really like him in his fears and imperfections. He could be anyone.
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- Rachel Dyer
- 02-19-24
Quality of the writing
Beautifully narrated, powerful subject matter and very beautiful writing.Any book by this author is worth every minute.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 06-24-24
Beautifully written
What gorgeous writing and beautiful storytelling. I loved it and will highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates a thought provoking, heart- wrenching story.
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- Seth Combs-Henry
- 03-18-24
Very good story, but best read the old-fashioned way
A beautiful tale of multi-decade friendships that examines the complex feelings that come with being a refugee unable to return home. However, I can’t help but feel as if I would have enjoyed it a lot more had the author not read it himself. I understand that some prefer this format, as it can give the listener a sense of how the author intends the words to be heard. In this case, it’s often difficult to discern who is speaking when especially since the author doesn’t attempt to change his voice at all when another character is speaking. So while the story of oftentimes brilliant, I can’t help but think it would have been much more fulfilling to actually read it in book format.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Caroline
- 02-23-24
The soul of friendship
The richest tapestry of lives entwined, of parting without parting, of listening to life and hearing its
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- Anonymous User
- 06-29-24
exceptional writing
a profoundly thoughtful exploration of the experience of exile and dislocation, recounted as the story of the narrator's closest relationships through a lifetime of first involuntary, then willful, separation from his homeland. beautifully insightful and emotionally wise and honest
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- Zavanna
- 09-15-24
Beautiful prose
The author is extremely gifted in describing and developing characters, emotions, and the human condition. I found myself relistening to many such passages, hoping to absorb their simple cadence and beauty. I kept thinking Wow. .how does he know that?To have a mind that can put words together so perfectly as to touch your soul is such a gift. The story itself is slow in building, so if you like a fast paced, lots of action type of read you won't like this. But if you enjoy a deeply felt story with the characters woven into and around each other, I think you'll enjoy this very much.
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- Laura M
- 11-26-24
Powerful
This is a beautiful, powerful story. Hisham Matar’s reading is propulsive. It gave me a lot to think about, and I was grateful for the learning about events that I have struggled to understand with all my lack of context.
About halfway through, there is an incident where the narrator goes to a prostitute for company, has an awkward encounter, and leaves, saying “I should’ve ****ed her.” This brief dip into misogyny is never examined. I kept waiting, and it didn’t happen. So while I wanted to love this book, from about halfway through I felt like there was a hole in the text, and I felt alienated from the narrator, suspicious of how he sees my kind, whether he only cares about middle- and upper-class women, etc. I read to the end with this element of unease. It’s not that the event would be unredeemable, but that it is never examined.
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