My Friends

Khaled Abd al Hady is the novel’s protagonist and first-person narrator. He is middle-aged in the narrative present and living in the same flat in the Shepherd’s Bush neighborhood in London, England, where he’s lived for three decades.

Khaled is a creature of habit who’s become attached to his life in England ever since emigrating from Libya when he was 18 years old. When he left his home in Benghazi, Khaled quickly became “gripped by the newness of things” in Edinburgh (48). Leaving home to attend university in this UK city granted Khaled a sense of excitement and adventure. He made new friends readily and became especially close with another literature-lover named Mustafa al Touny. Meanwhile, Khaled did long for his home and family in Benghazi, but was also thrilled by the independence that Edinburgh offered. Over time, his internal world became increasingly divided between his reality away from home and his seemingly distant past back in his home country.

Khaled is an introspective character. Throughout the narrative present, he reflects on his past experiences as he walks through London’s streets. His mind meanders through time as he recalls everything that happened to him over his past 32 years in the city.