In October 2001, nineteen-year-old Murat Kurnaz traveled to Pakistan to visit a madrassa. During a security check a few weeks after his arrival, he was arrested without explanation. He was first taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he was severely mistreated, then two months later he was flown to Guantanamo. There, he was tortured, kept in a cage and endured daily interrogations, solitary confinement, and sleep deprivation. Finally, in August 2006, Kurnaz was released, without an apology from the U.S. government and acknowledgment of his innocence. A critical contribution to our knowledge of the atrocities of Guantanamo, Five Years of My Life has been called "a vital document that should - rightly - shock and appall" (Kirkus).
