Summary

In this chapter, Matar examines the possible reasons why his uncles and cousins in Abu Salim, especially Uncle Mahmoud, were unable to recognize Matar's father by his voice or the poems which multiple prisoners reported hearing at night that came specifically from Ajdabiya. The entirety of this chapter is dedicated to this interjection, which includes Matar going back in time to document his father's long-standing relationship with poetry.

He imagines his father reciting poetry in prison with the same voice he used during dinner parties at their Cairo flat after persistent requests from his friends, with "a voice that seemed to open up a landscape as magically uncertain and borderless as still water welded to the sky" (53). Matar explains the efforts to which his mother went to ensure the most eloquent spread possible, while his father funded and fueled the ideas of revolutionaries. His...