“In the Country of Men,” Hisham Matar’s 2006 debut novel, is about a young boy and his family living under an oppressive political regime in 1979, a regime run by a leader who was not ousted until 2011. In which North African country is the book mostly set?

From a 2006 article by Amy Virshup in The Times:

Shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, Hisham Matar’s first novel is set in Libya in 1979. Nine-year-old Suleiman is waiting for his mother in Martyrs’ Square in Tripoli, when he watches a strange scene unfold: His father, who is supposedly away on business, walks through the square and into a building. He emerges to hang a small red towel on a clothesline, then disappears inside. Soon events overtake the family members: Their next-door neighbor is seized by the forces of “the Guide,” the dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi, and publicly executed. Suleiman’s own father disappears as well, as Suleiman tries to make sense of what’s happening around him.