57 pages • 1 hour read
Hisham MatarMy Friends
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 22-48Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
At Westminster Hospital, Khaled and Mustafa received a mysterious Libyan visitor. He was kind to them and brought them a care package, but never introduced himself formally.
Chapter 23 Summary
A month after the shooting, Khaled and Mustafa learned that Hosam had disappeared. Theories about his identity, past, and whereabouts began to spread. For 11 years, Khaled would be haunted by Hosam’s disappearance until they met in person.
Chapter 24 Summary
Six weeks after their admission, Khaled and Mustafa were released from the hospital. Khaled made plans to stay at Rana’s family’s second home in London. Mustafa left the city and Khaled said an emotional goodbye to Nurse Clement.
Chapter 25 Summary
Rana met Khaled in the waiting room and led him through the city to Notting Hill Gate. Along the way, Rana praised London, which Khaled couldn’t understand because he was still attached to Benghazi. Then Rana informed him that Walbrook was asking after him. He sent Khaled a note with Rana, which included his personal phone number.
Chapter 26 Summary
Rana helped Khaled settle in at the flat. A few days later, she left and Khaled was alone. He was paranoid wherever he went, constantly convinced he was being followed.
Chapter 27 Summary
Khaled was anxious whenever he heard the apartment building door open or the phone ring. Meanwhile, he thought about his family and started drinking heavily. He spent many days in bed until, one day, he discovered the nearby library, where he began to spend time.
Khaled called Walbrook. They had a warm and friendly conversation. Walbrook asked Khaled if he knew what he needed. Khaled promised to get back to him when he did.
Chapter 28 Summary
One weekend, Rana visited. She pressed Khaled about what he’d do next, as he couldn’t return to Edinburgh or Benghazi in light of the demonstration. Khaled wasn’t sure, but after Rana left that weekend, he decided he’d return home.
However, he became indecisive about the matter in the following days. Overwhelmed and emotional, Khaled tried talking to Rana about the matter but didn’t know what to say on the phone. She urged him to contact his family. Afterwards, Khaled told himself that when he called home, he wasn’t allowed to cry.
Chapter 29 Summary
Khaled called home. He talked to Kamal first, who was relieved to hear from him. Khaled made up stories about his life, convinced their call had been bugged. When Kamal stepped away from the phone to get Khaled’s mother and sister, Khaled heard a voice say, “Think you’re a man” (125). Disturbed, Khaled was careful to reveal nothing for the rest of the call.
Chapter 30 Summary
After the call, Khaled tried to discern if his family knew about the shooting. He analyzed everything they’d said, trying to make sense of whether or not the regime would have informed them of the matter. Convinced the regime would harm his family, Khaled vowed not to call again.
Not long later, Khaled’s breathing worsened. He visited the doctor, who assured him his lungs were still healing. Khaled told the doctor he wanted to return to Libya, and asked if they could change his medical reports so the regime wouldn’t know he’d been shot. The doctors wanted to help, but there was nothing they could do.
Chapter 31 Summary
When Rana visited again, she brought a suitcase of Khaled’s things. He couldn’t open it for three days. Afterwards, he wrote to his parents, saying he was getting a new flat and not to contact him until he sent the new address.
Chapter 32 Summary
A few days later, Khaled was called to New Scotland Yard. Khaled was terrified they’d arrest him, but the agents assured him they were working on his case and warned him to be careful while out. They returned the jacket he’d been wearing during the demonstration.
Back home afterwards, Khaled unfurled the jacket from its envelope. Then he dumped it in a trashcan near Hyde Park.
Chapter 33 Summary
Khaled settled into his life in London over the following weeks. He started reading and calling Walbrook regularly. Sometimes he felt safe in London, but sometimes he worried about his well-being. One day, he talked to Walbrook about what he needed. Walbrook gave him advice on how to find work, money, and an education.
Chapter 34 Summary
Khaled moved into his own flat in Shepherd’s Bush within the month. He then found a sales assistant job at a local clothing store. Meanwhile, he kept in touch with Rana.
Chapter 35 Summary
Rana invited Khaled “on a trip to the Costa Brava” (149) with her friends Hugh, Lucy, and Seham. Khaled secured his travel paperwork and took two weeks.
Chapter 36 Summary
In Costa Brava, Khaled was moved by the beauty of the place. He and his friends spent most of their time on the beach. Khaled swam, but was careful to leave his shirt on so no one saw his scar. He only took it off once, when he and Rana were swimming alone. However, he never did so again because he thought Rana looked disgusted when she saw it.
Chapter 37 Summary
Khaled grew close with Seham throughout the trip. One night while walking on the beach, they kissed. Khaled suddenly felt that life was open to him and he could be at home anywhere.
Chapter 38 Summary
Khaled and Walbrook continued communicating via postcards. Walbrook suggested Khaled apply to Birkbeck College. Walbrook visited Khaled in London one weekend after he returned from Costa Brava.
Chapter 39 Summary
Khaled missed Costa Brava and Seham in the weeks after their trip. He and Seham started communicating on the phone. One day, Khaled called Kamal, who was hurt he hadn’t been in touch.
Chapter 40 Summary
Khaled and Mustafa met at Café Cyrano after being out of touch for five months. They caught up and discussed what had happened to them. They had both been contacted by Scotland Yard and weren’t certain what their families knew. After their outing, Khaled returned home feeling anxious and sad.
Chapter 41 Summary
Khaled rented a P.O. box and gave the address to his parents. He also informed them he’d changed schools and moved to London. The following weekend, Khaled and Mustafa met up again. Mustafa was surprised Khaled was returning to school, as he was pursuing a job instead.
Chapter 42 Summary
Khaled and Mustafa’s friendship changed over the following months. Mustafa was often jealous of Khaled’s other friends. However, he had another friend group of his own, and often invited Khaled to their meetings.
Chapter 43 Summary
Khaled applied to Birkbeck with Walbrook’s help. He had an interview with the English Literature department. He impressed them and was accepted.
Chapter 44 Summary
Khaled received asylum, which helped him secure a grant for school. In 1985, he started classes at Birkbeck. Shortly thereafter, he called his family for the first time in months and made up stories about his new life to appease them.
Chapter 45 Summary
Khaled reunited with Rana, Seham, Hugh, and Lucy in Soho. Khaled was initially glad to see them, but sad when he realized how unchanged their lives were compared to his own. Afterwards, Khaled parted with Rana in the street, saying he needed time alone to think.
Over the following months, Khaled threw himself into his coursework. Meanwhile, he had occasional sexual affairs. Finally he met a woman named Hannah, and they grew attached. She was the first lover Khaled told about the shooting and showed her his scar.
Chapter 46 Summary
Khaled immersed himself in books. Meanwhile, he wondered about Hosam, who hadn’t resurfaced since the shooting.
Chapter 47 Summary
Halfway through his degree, Khaled lied and told his family he’d graduated from UCL and was pursuing a Master’s. In reality, he got a job teaching at Battersea after graduation. Not long later, he ran into his mother’s brother Osama in the street, and made plans to have dinner together.
Chapter 48 Summary
Khaled had dinner with Osama. He lied about why he’d left Edinburgh, saying he’d written a dissenting article about Qaddafi in the paper. Osama encouraged him not to lose heart, and he gave Khaled a tearful goodbye.
Chapters 22-48 Analysis
The aftermath of the St. James’s Square shooting changes Khaled’s relationship with his home and family. After Khaled is involved in the shooting, he is careful to hide the truth from his loved ones due to his fear of political violence against them. He starts to write and call home less often and even begins to fabricate stories about his life to protect his family. “A thousand and one things could befall us and the people we love the most would have no hint of it” (134-35), he muses while trying to decide what to tell his parents and sister, and what details to omit. The more Khaled pulls away from his family, the more moored he becomes in his new life in England. He feels emotionally caught between London and Benghazi, but also feels powerless to bridge this internal gap.
Khaled’s internal conflict launches the novel’s explorations of Personal Versus Political Identity. Khaled’s struggle to reconcile his new life in England with his past life in Libya also develops the novel’s subtextual commentaries on diasporic experiences, particularly the ways in which migrating from one’s home country might compel the individual to feel displaced and alone. Khaled is just 18 years old when he originally migrates to England in 1983; therefore, he’s still entering the first stages of adulthood in the immediate wake of the shooting and his operation.
Khaled’s experiences at the hospital, in Rana’s family’s Notting Hill Gate flat, at Costa Brava, at his Shepherd’s Bush apartment, and at Birkbeck College capture his attempts to establish himself as an independent individual while he’s coming of age. The scene where Khaled throws his blood-encrusted jacket into “a rubbish bin in a spot where no one [can] see [him]” (139) at Hyde Park captures Khaled’s attempt to eradicate the past. The jacket is a reminder of his political identity and his fleeting attempt to align himself with the Libyan revolution. He discards the jacket because he no longer wants to associate with this brief era of his life, and instead longs to establish a personal identity apart from it.
Shortly thereafter, he decides to move out of Rana’s flat and into a new “top-floor flat in a small house” in the Shepherd’s Bush neighborhood (145). This apartment represents Khaled’s search for independence, autonomy, and individuality. Using a retrospective narrative tone, Khaled reflects that when he moved in, “I did not know then that I would get to know this view so intimately, that I would watch these trees turn and grow for a third of a century” (145). This moment foreshadows Khaled’s coming attachment to the Shepherd’s Bush apartment. This physical space is an extension of his developing personal identity, reflecting his work to establish himself beyond the parameters of his family, past, and life in Libya.
Meanwhile, the hospital and Costa Brava settings have similarly powerful emotional influences on Khaled’s character. The hospital represents the interstice between Khaled’s past and present, while Costa Brava’s oceanic setting grants Khaled a sense of renewal and healing. This latter setting is particularly significant because of the water imagery the Costa Brava scenes feature. “The sea was beautiful and unchanged,” Khaled remarks upon arriving in Costa Brava, “and its beauty was part of its fidelity” (153). The water often appears both “bright” and “dark” to Khaled, a dichotomous appearance that captures the ocean’s mysterious nature. The ocean is at once a symbol of the unknown, and an agent of healing for Khaled. It therefore represents his future beyond the shooting. Indeed, after he returns from Costa Brava, he begins to make more concerted efforts to change his life and to settle into his new home.
The motif of books and reading also illustrates Khaled’s desire to attach himself to his reality in England and to distance himself from his past in Libya, as he draws closer to Professor Walbrook and attempts to immerse himself in his intellectual pursuits. “You can have any life you want,” he begins to tell himself, and “[a]ny place could be your favorite place too” (157). These lines of internal monologue convey Khaled’s desire for belonging and his desperation to secure this belonging through action. For these reasons, he immerses himself in his schoolwork at Birkbeck College and becomes especially invested in studying English literature. When he “turn[s] deeper into reading,” he becomes “acquainted with progress, or what [he sees] as progress” (189).
Khaled thus associates English literature, culture, and society as synonymous with his future, and in turn with his new identity. The same can be said of Khaled’s relationship with Walbrook, a connection that attaches him more directly to his life in England. By way of contrast, Khaled maintains his distance from his family to draw harder barriers between his cultural and political identities, increasingly committed to forgetting his past.
