The Prisoner of Guantanamo

The Prisoner of Guantanamo, by Dan Fesperman

A political thriller ripped from current headlines, The Prisoner of Guantanamo gives the reader a great inside view of the American base of Guantanamo and its much-debated prison system. Fesperman is a reporter for the Baltimore Sun and has both a keen reporters eye and an obviously well-polished writing style. Perhaps the plot wears thin towards the end of the book, but the reader gets a wonderful "insider's" view of Guantanamo prisons. All aspects of prisoner treatment is covered. The main character, Revere Falk, a FBI veteran and Arabic speaker, is an interrogator of suspected terrorists. His main charge is a Yemeni man, who is an al-Qaeda suspect. After an American soldier is found on a Cuban beach, adjacent to Guantanamo, the story takes off with many representatives of the American intelligence community becoming involved in this death. The highlights of the book are the physical descriptions of the Guantanamo base and the conditions in which the prisoners are kept. By the way, Fesperman has written several other books with political themes - two being The Small Boat of Great Sorrows and Lie in the Dark. Both take place in Sarajevo and are also recommended along with this book.
-Roy