Guantanamo Voices True Accounts from the World’s Most Infamous Prison
by Sarah Mirk

Published by Abrams ComicArts

Pub Date 8 Sep 2020

Description
An anthology of illustrated narratives about the prison and the lives it changed forever

In January 2002, the United States sent a group of Muslim men they suspected of terrorism to a prison in Guantánamo Bay. They were the first of roughly 780 prisoners who would be held there—and 40 inmates still remain. Eighteen years later, very few of them have been ever charged with a crime.
In Guantánamo Voices, journalist Sarah Mirk and her team of diverse, talented graphic novel artists tell the stories of ten people whose lives have been shaped and affected by the prison, including former prisoners, lawyers, social workers, and service members. This collection of illustrated interviews explores the history of Guantánamo and the world post-9/11, presenting this complicated partisan issue through a new lens.

A Note From the Publisher
Sarah Mirk is a multimedia journalist whose work focuses on telling nuanced, human-focused stories. She is an editor of The Nib and the former online editor of national feminism and pop-culture magazine Bitch Media. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Review Note: The copy provided for the review was an uncorrected proof. As a result, the resolution was not high. Because of this, I found some sections of the book difficult to read. The finished book will be in full colour.

When reviewing some books, it is difficult to separate one’s political convictions from playing a role in the way one views a book. When a book’s subject touches something as emotive as detention without trial, it can be easy to get carried away with one’s own righteous indignation. Simply put does a one enjoy a book because it confirms one’s own biases about a subject. This is something I grappled with while reading Guantanamo Voices.

This is a story we all know. Hundreds of detainees were held without trial or charges for years. It should turn the stomach of anyone. Guantanamo Voices examines how we got here, what went on, and, how or indeed if we can move on.

The publisher describes it as an anthology of illustrated narratives which is the perfect description. The format reminds me of a book like Penelope Bagieu’s Brazen. The trick here is that each one of the oral history’s featured is brought to life by a different artist. Given that I am reviewing an uncorrected proof, some changes to the artwork might be made. That said the artwork is gorgeous. Moazzam Begg story especially captured the Kafkaesque hopelessness that detainees faced. They were tortured, humiliated, and, imprisoned with little or no hope of freedom. Some of the stories read like absurd scenes from The Thick of It or Veep while others read like horror stories.

Some of the art styles while all individually brilliant do jar with one another occasionally, but this is only to be expected when you have a diverse array of creators working on one book—an almost inconsequential quibble given the quality of illustration throughout.

As compellingly told as the stories were, they were also grim. Most of the stories left me angry and exasperated. Was this just an effect of my own biases being confirmed or something else? This is recent. This is now. Mirk reminds the reader in the coda not to get carried away. The people running the centre are not evil. It would be easier to understand if they were moustache-twirling villains, but they are not. They were soldiers that were given lawful orders. These terrible things that people at the time tried to stop from happening.

Mirk does a fantastic job of reminding us how urgent the story of Guantanamo Bay still is. It is also a reminder that graphic novels have an essential part to play in journalism. Guantanamo Voices should be mandatory reading for anyone who has doubts about voting this year. Even putting aside my perceptions of Gitmo before reading the book, Guantanamo Voices is a fine non-fiction graphic novel that I would highly recommend. I’ll be buying a copy once it is released.

25/30