Summary

To begin his second chapter, Matar divulges further into his childhood and the boarding school he attended in England under the pseudonym Bob. During his second year, he was acquainted with a Libyan boy named Hamza, and the two quickly became friends. Matar longed to ask his new friend of the home country he hadn’t seen in eight years, but Hamza’s father worked for the Libyan government. Matar claims that by this point, his father had become “one of the most noted leaders of the opposition,” meaning Hisham could not risk letting his new friend learn his real name (18). Nonetheless, the boys developed “that special thing, when a friendship comes to resemble a shelter” (18). Upon leaving the school, Matar confessed his Libyan identity, and recalls the friends embracing and weeping together.

Matar briefly jumps further back in time to examine why...