Summary

Matar dedicates this chapter more than any previous chapter to an in-depth discussion of the Libyan revolution through the story of his younger cousin Izzo. At the young age of twenty-three, Izzo joined the revolution "on his doorstep" in Ajdabiya (78). Izzo's group and other revolutionary groups at the time were gaining momentum, and Mater remembers how "we all came to know the names of the streets," meaning all Libyans, at home like Izzo and abroad like himself (79). Revolutionaries desperately held onto the key city of Misrata while the nearby city of Zliten became an important strategic site for both sides. Izzo excitedly told his mother on a brief visit home from the fighting that the revolution's final target was Bab al-Azizia, Qaddafi's military compound that was believed to house some of the regime's most feared political prisoners like Jaballa...