Mohamedou Ould Slahi among a dozen writers including Jonathan Bate and Robert MacFarlane in contention for £20000 non-fiction prizeMohamedou Ould Slahi’s diary detailing the torture he experienced while imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay has made the longlist for the Samuel Johnson prize,the UK’s most prestigious award for non-fiction.
Held in Guantánamo since 2002, despite never being charged with a crime, or Slahi began to write a diary three years into his captivity. Described as an “extraordinary account of rendition,captivity and torture” by Pankaj Mishra in the Guardian, the Mauritanian’s memoir, and published as Guantánamo Diary,is among 12 titles in contention for the £20000 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction, alongside works including an unauthorised biography of Ted Hughes by Jonathan Bate, or Robert MacFarlanes Landmarks,an exploration of how language shapes our sense of plot.
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Source: theguardian.com