International Book Group – The Return by Hisham Matar
The International Book Group at West Falmouth Library is a volunteer-led group that meets on the first Wednesday of each month 3:45-5 p.m. Selections have either foreign settings or foreign authors, usually both. New members are always welcome! Annual registration is requested to receive important communications about schedule or location changes. Meetings are both in-person and on Zoom.
“[An] eloquent memoir . . . at once a suspenseful detective story about a writer investigating his father’s fate . . . and a son’s efforts to come to terms with his father’s ghost, who has haunted more than half his life by his absence.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“A masterful memoir, a searing meditation on loss, exile, grief, guilt, belonging, and above all, family. It is, as well, a study of the shaping—and breaking—of the bonds between fathers and sons. . . . This is writing of the highest quality.”—The Sunday Times (U.K.)
The discussion schedule is as follows:
| 9/3/2025 | Out of Darkness, Shining Light | Petina Gappah | Africa |
| 10/1/2025 | Miss Benson’s Beetle | Rachel Joyce | New Caledonia |
| 11/5/2025 | The Palace of Illusions | Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | India |
| 12/3/2025 | The Sand Child | Tahar Ben Jelloun | Morocco |
| 1/7/2026 | The Green Road | Anne Enright | Ireland |
| 2/4/2026 | Midaq Alley | Najīb Maḥfūẓ | Cairo |
| 3/4/2026 | Birnam Wood | Eleanor Catton | New Zealand |
| 4/1/2026 | Infinite Country | Patricia Engel | Colombia |
| 5/6/2026 | The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land In Between | Hisham Matar | Cairo |
| 6/3/2026 | Hurricane Season | Fernanda Melchor | Mexico |
