Matar won a Pulitzer Prize for his memoir, “The Return,” mourning his homeland and his father. In his new novel, he turns to the untranslatability of exile — and friendship.
Repair work was agreed but never finished and Derna paid the price. Experts say infrastructure projects have long been neglected, with officials focusing instead on lining their own pockets.
“The state wasn’t interested,” said an engineer who published a paper on why Derna’s dams, after decades of postponed repairs, might fail under the stress of a powerful storm.
Violence erupted this week in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, again sowing chaos in a country plagued by instability since the ouster of the dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi more than a decade ago.