Review by Booklist Review
Adayfi was 18 years old, working on a research project in Afghanistan, when he was abducted by Afghan members of the Northern Alliance. At a CIA "black site," Adayfi faced brutal interrogation, savage torture leading him to yield to his captors and tell them anything, even if false, just to make them stop. Though Adayfi is Yemeni, U.S. authorities had information that he was an Egyptian commander in Al Qaeda. He was soon sent to Guantanamo Bay, where he was imprisoned with other "high value" detainees. The author's harrowing, 15-year ordeal is one that is ultimately of resilience and deep faith. Adayfi and fellow inmates faced non-stop interrogation, beatings, and degradation both physical and mental, while their rights were nonexistent. This survivor spares no details in relaying his travails, but he also provides beauty, in describing the little things that gave him hope, like animals or the sounds of the sea. Mansoor's plight is unfathomable, but his strength is enviable. His powerful story is a must read in every way.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Adayfi debuts with a searing look at the brutal conditions he endured during his 14 years at the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay detention camp. In 2001, during a stint in Afghanistan working as a research assistant, he was abducted by warlords. Initially, his captors wanted a ransom payment, but instead they sold him to American forces, presenting the 18-year-old Yemeni captive as a recruiter for al-Qaeda. Following months in a CIA black site in Afghanistan, Adayfi was transferred to Guantanamo, where, he writes, interrogators tortured him and were unwilling to accept his claims that he wasn't a terrorist. The savagery of his treatment--including one instance in which he was force-fed through his nose after organizing a hunger strike ("My nose bled and bled, but the nurse wouldn't stop")--is harrowing, and the revelation that no charges were brought against him at the end of his long captivity is deeply disturbing. Even still, Adayfi manages to focus on the beauty and hope that came from his darkest times, like learning English and computer skills and advocating for other inmates, which made "the harsh cold of solitary confinement go away, if only for a little while." This poignant testament strikes a devastating chord. Agent: Julia Eagleton, the Gernert Company. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Having left Yemen at age 18 for a cultural mission in Afghanistan, Adayfi was kidnapped, sold to the United States, and held without charges for 14 years at Guantánamo Bay. There he became known as Smiley Troublemaker, asserting himself by leading prison riots and hunger strikes. Released in 2016 and now an activist, he won the Richard J. Margolis Award for nonfiction writers of social justice journalism and is currently adapting this memoir for the Sundance Institute.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A farmer's son from rural Yemen recounts his harrowing 14-year imprisonment at Guantánamo Bay. Adayfi's first-person narrative, co-written by Aiello, focuses on the internal ordeal of a young man (18 at the beginning of his imprisonment) who was sold by Afghan warlords to the Americans as a jihadi after 9/11. Sent on a "special job" to Afghanistan by a sheik at the Dar al-Hadith Islamic institute in Sana'a, where Adayfi studied in the spring of 2001, he was seized, shackled, blindfolded, tortured, and flown to Guantánamo Bay, where the U.S. government had recently created the notorious Camp X-Ray for alleged terrorists. Much of this straightforward, grief-stricken chronicle is an alternately solemn and gruesome account of the horrendous daily treatment of the prisoners, which included genital searches, interrogations, beatings, sensory deprivation, and desecration of their Qurans. That last indignity sometimes led to resistance in the form of hunger strikes, and Adayfi continually emphasizes the lack of respect, especially for the prisoners' faith. Branded one of the worst troublemakers, the author was assumed to be a middle-aged Egyptian al-Qaida operative named Adel. Consequently, he suffered a decade of solitary confinement. Like many others, he was never assigned a lawyer or properly accused, and he was subject to endless, repetitive interrogation: "Another team replaces the FBI, and then another replaces them. DIA, MI, CIA, NYPD--you don't know what any of the names mean or who they are, but you ask over and over, 'Where am I and why am I here?' They respond with all the same questions." With Barack Obama's promise to close the facility, hope emerged and conditions improved (briefly). Adayfi learned English and finally received legal representation, and he was cleared by a review board for relocation to Serbia. "If I didn't accept their offer…I could spend the rest of my life in Guantánamo," writes the author near the end of this powerful book. An important record of prisoner mistreatment as a national reckoning over Guantánamo continues to loom. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
