On Jan. 17, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services informed Matar Matar and his wife, Dr. Amal Alyusuf, that the agency had “rendered a favorable decision” in their appeal for sanctuary ...

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.

Matar’s new novel, the ambitious and poignant “My Friends,” is his first book about Libyans without the figure of the persecuted father. The protagonist, Khaled, is a young man who leaves ...