You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.

I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.

I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,

relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.

So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,

and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.

So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

Hello, this week we're considering the points of which traumatic, personal and political events

meet on the page, the stage and the film set.

We begin with My Friends, the new novel by Hisham Matar, whose previous books, including

the Booker shortlisted in the country of men, anatomy of a disappearance, and the Pulitzer

prize-winning the return, have dealt with the difficulty of living in the shadow of oppressive regimes.

My Friends occupies similar territory but comes at it from a different angle,

describing the relationship between three exiles from Libya,

Khaled, Mustafa and Hossam, during the time of Colonel Gaddafi's rule.

Spanning several decades from the 1980s to the 2010s,

the story describes Khaled's early life in Benghazi, his love of literature, his

move to the UK, and the painful impossibility of returning home. The book is framed by a walk

he takes across London, which starts at St. Pankras Station, where he's just said goodbye he thinks

for the last time to Hossam. When I spoke to Hisham Matar, I asked him why he wanted to begin his novel with an ending.

I always thought, you know, that moment when you take somebody that you really care about

...