You know, one of the most eyebrow-raising things for us humble book reviewers is to see a book say not once but at least twice what it's not going to do. This one said it was not going to take a side for or against the continued existence of Guantanamo Bay's prison for alleged Islamist terrorists, held without trial. And it actually didn't, to my surprise. Put a damp flannel in its gob for a while and it would certainly say it disliked the stats of the place – the high percentage of people there because others had taken a bounty from the US military to accuse them, the excessively low percentage of successful charges being handed out, the remarkable cost and staff-to-inmate ratio of maintaining it. But, like it or not, decades after the post 9-11 administration bent the rules on military imprisonment to fly what they thought were Islamist terrorists to southern Cuba, and certainly years after Barack "Yes we Can" Obama said he'd shut it down (no, he couldn't), it is still there. 40 people, seemingly there for life. There are now more walkers and hospice-styled rooms than the earlier photos of be-bagged prisoners in red jumpsuits would have you assume.

This book, plainly and unshowily presented, sometimes dramatises an interview without editorialising, and other times presents it very journalistically, but always tries to talk about the place at hand, whether from the point of view of the key-holders or not. It goes for a factual visual approach too (this is no extraordinary rendition lol), even with a cleverly reduced palette, but does manage to put a lot of life into stultifying hours of sol-co.

However, what the book says what it's not doing is one thing, what it does is another, and what it does not do is a third. It features Moazzam Begg, one of the most notorious inmates, due to his speaking English, due to his use of a singular British lawyer to get the whole habeus corpus issue into the light, and one of the people most easily linked with known terrorists, terrorist funding, and terrorist sympathising, before and after his confinement. Oh, and the chap that allegedly inspired this book, as an ex-Gitmo guard? Yup, one of his literary collaborators. Anything is sullied by working with Begg, it's fair to say – but the book doesn't dare mention he might have a rum side. But then, "facts matter less than the stories we tell ourselves".

Overall it's easy too to see problems that are not unique to these pages, but spread universally about comment on Guantanamo. More than one reference to Nuremberg is made – yeah, you think in this day and age we'd have still sped through the Nazi trials within a couple of years? That's piffle – whatever the regulations standing these days, the equivalent would be spread out over years of investigation and sitting on things; many are the murderers with multiple eye witnesses and instant pleas of guilt who don't see a courthouse for months. Everyone is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but too often the idea of 'lack of proof of guilt is no proof of innocence' is swept under the carpet.

Oh, and look out for the tortuous use of Marilyn Manson lyrics twelve years before they were written. The place is a time warp, don't'cha know.

Sarah Mirk makes powerful use of the graphic novel form. Guantanamo Voices is literary in the work it does, even with the deceptive simplicity of words and pictures. There is much in this book to continue thinking about.

The problem with Americans is that we have a short attention span. It does not help that the media does too. And although I like to think that I keep uπ on current events, and that I have followed everything that happened with Guantanamo, this book revealed that I have not, and do not, and could not know all.

This very detailed non-fiction book follows some of the men imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, who have never been charged with a crime. Which is against the constitution. But because we are holding them on Cuban soil, somehow we get away with it? Never mind that Cuba has been trying to get us to leave since Castro first came to power.

Sarah goes there and interviews some of the workers there, who are told the same line that these are the worst of the worse. And yet, how long has it been that they have been held there? With no trail? With no charge?

Each section is drawn by a different artist. Some concentrate on stories of the prisoners themselves. Some focus on the people who have tried to help the prisoners.

Sad. Gripping. This book shines a bright light on information that the current government would rather keep buried.

Even if you think you know all there is to know about Guantanamo, you should pick up this book to see just what is going on in reality.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Thank you Abrams Publishing and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy

Available September 8th 2020

Guantanamo Bay is, as President George Bush famously declared it, an example of the "worst of the worst" in that it shows the dark side of American History. In Sarah Mirk's graphic anthology, "Guantanamo Voices", the malignant and horrific truth of the events that took place in Guantanamo come to life. With accounts from guards, defense attorneys, prosecutors and ex-detainees, Mirk places a face and a story to each of the 7600 page human rights violations committed on Guantanamo. It is a brutal read. I cried several times, especially at the story of Mansoor Adayfi, a prisoner who risked his life trying to protect the animals at the camp. To honor the memories of those who have suffered and continue to suffer endlessly under the American surveillance state, "Guantanamo Voices" is a necessary read.

This book made me incredibly angry. You think you know how insanely horrible a place Guantanamo Bay is, you think you've heard the worst, and of course it turns out this is a deep, deeeeep well of sorrow.

The book is a collection of transcribed interviews with all kinds of people connected to the prison at Guantanamo - from actual prisoners who were released (or former 'detainees', in the US government's Newspeak), to lawyers trying to get prisoners out of there, to soldier's who have served there. Each interview is illustrated by a different artist, and it helps to see real (well, illustrated real..) faces to ground the stories that are told.

And what stories they are.. people like to chirrup "it's Nineteen Eighty-Four!" at the drop of a hat, but Guantanamo actually qualifies to be called Orwellian. A seemingly impenetrable house of mirrors, a shaky structure of rules recurving on itself, without a visible exit. And towards the end of the book, just when you are at your angriest and simultaneously feel completely helpless, you are reminded not to give up, that giving up hope is exactly what 'the other side' wants. It helps, a tiny bit.

Read these stories, don't let them get away with this.