Summary

Matar begins this chapter in his Benghazi hotel, lamenting that “the days complicated [his] nights” (122). Unable to sleep, he reads one of the short stories his father authored in college, titled “A Struggle with Fate” (123). Exploring the possible inspiration for his father’s story, he goes off on a tangent, which lasts the entirety of this chapter, of the memory of his Grandfather Hamed. Similar to how Jaballa Matar’s life influenced Hisham’s writing, Grandfather Hamed was undoubtedly a profound influence on Jaballa’s writing.

Grandfather Hamed was born somewhere between 1876 and 1885 in Ajdabiya, during a time when Libya existed as a desert on a map, not a recognized country. His home, to Matar, “was the point from which not only Ajdabiya but the entire map of the world developed” (128). He vividly recalls the intricacies of the house, with its winding staircases...