Heartbreaking, devastating. Slahi comes across as reasonable, personable and charming. That he maintains such a calm and engaging tone while recounting his own torture somehow amplifies the emotional gravity of the material. Considering what he describes, it is also remarkable that he demonstrates compassion, and even love, for his captors and tormentors as human beings.

It's hard to imagine reading this without it casting a gloom over your day and making one want to cry. It deeply personalizes the sometimes abstract or remote injustices committed as part of the ongoing 'war on terror'.

In addition to all that, it's well written and often difficult to put down (though you sometimes must to take a break from the traumatic content).