Libya
Libya under Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year dictatorship (1969–2011) banned books critical of the regime, works by opposition writers, and literature challenging Gaddafi's own ideological treatise, The Green Book. Libyan author Hisham Matar's family was persecuted by the regime; Matar's father, a prominent dissident, was abducted by Gaddafi agents and disappeared into Libyan prisons. Post-Gaddafi Libya has faced profound instability that has made a regular publishing environment difficult to establish.
Banned books
Animal Farm
George Orwell
Animal Farm is a brilliant political satire and a powerful and affecting story of revolutions and idealism, power and corruption. 'All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.' Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon and Snowball leads to the animals taking over the farm. Vowing to eliminate the terrible inequities of the farmyard, the renamed Animal Farm is
Government / national · 1945 · lifted
In the Country of Men
Hisham Matar
Hisham Matar's 2006 debut novel, set in Gaddafi's Libya, is narrated by nine-year-old Suleiman, who begins to understand the terror that governs his world as his father's dissident activities draw the attention of the secret police. Based partly on Matar's own childhood; his father was abducted in Cairo in 1990 and disappeared into Libyan prisons.
Government / national · 2006 · lifted