Don't Forget Us Here

Lost and Found at Guantanamo

By: Mansoor Adayfi

Narrated by: Roxanna Hope Radja, Mansoor Adayfi

This moving, eye-opening memoir of an innocent man detained at Guantánamo Bay for 15 years tells a story of humanity in the unlikeliest of places and an unprecedented look at life at Guantánamo.

At the age of 18, Mansoor Adayfi left his home in Yemen for a cultural mission to Afghanistan. He never returned. Kidnapped by warlords and then sold to the US after 9/11, he was disappeared to Guantánamo Bay, where he spent the next 14 years as Detainee #441.

Don't Forget Us Here tells two coming-of-age stories in parallel: a makeshift island outpost becoming the world's most notorious prison and an innocent young man emerging from its darkness. Arriving as a stubborn teenager, Mansoor survived the camp's infamous interrogation program and became a feared and hardened resistance fighter leading prison riots and hunger strikes. With time though, he grew into the man nicknamed "Smiley Troublemaker": a student, writer, advocate, and historian. While at Guantánamo, he wrote a series of manuscripts he sent as letters to his attorneys, which he then transformed into this vital chronicle, in collaboration with award-winning writer Antonio Aiello. With unexpected warmth and empathy, Mansoor unwinds a narrative of fighting for hope and survival in unimaginable circumstances, illuminating the limitlessness of the human spirit. And through his own story, he also tells Guantánamo's story, offering an unprecedented window into one of the most secretive places on earth and the people - detainees and guards alike - who lived there with him. Twenty years after 9/11, Guantánamo remains open, and at a moment of due reckoning, Mansoor Adayfi helps us understand what actually happened there - both the horror and the beauty - a stunning record of an experience we cannot afford to forget.

©2021 Mansoor Adayfi (P)2021 Hachette Books

Critic reviews

"This is a wholly enthralling, relentlessly enraging, and unexpectedly funny book about one man caught in the absurdist world of the War on Terror. With his mordant wit and astonishing perseverance, Mansoor is impossible not to root for. This is a contemporary Unbroken with vital lessons for the American military-intelligence complex, exposing how an ostensibly moral nation becomes a state sponsor of torture." (Dave Eggers, Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize)

"In this landmark work, Mansoor Adayfi gives us a guided tour through the nightmarish landscape of Guantánamo. He tells a tale of both casual cruelty and organized sadism that should make every American politician redden with shame. But this memoir offers much more than just a gruesome portrait of a bureaucracy gone berserk, for it describes the fierce resistance and ultimate redemption of an innocent Yemeni man consigned to a hellish prison. Let us hope that Don't Forget Us Here will spark a long overdue reckoning with the horrors of Guantánamo and its many victims." (Ron Chernow, former president of PEN America and best-selling author of Grant and Hamilton)

"An incredible story! I am grateful to this joyously heartbreaking book for reminding me of what it means to be not just human, but humane. Once we read his story, we too must become committed, held accountable and responsible for what happened in Guantánamo, what is still happening and what might happen in the future. This book is about the horrendous reality of life for the Guantánamo detainees. But it is also about resilience in the face of such reality, and joy of being alive, preserving your sense of dignity and identity under the worst conditions. It is about how to create new spaces when all space has been confiscated. Finally it is about how to transcend Guantánamo, making us face up to what it means to be not human but also humane." (Azar Nafisi, best-selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran)

One tragic tale!

I am happy he able to write his story for the world to read too!

Amazing Story

This was a truly heartbreaking story told beautifully. Filled with information and presented honestly and a incerely.

The Ring of Truth is Clear

I thought this book would be painful to hear and while parts of the narrative were heartbreaking, Mansoor Adayfi’s deep faith in Allah and his own integrity shone through making it a testament to the human spirit which can be tested but can survive. Thank you to the author who has given us this account.

Encapsulating

I was encapsulated from the very beginning right until then end. Mansoor endured so much yet never let it compromise his principles or break his spirit. It left me truly heartbroken

heart breaking

what I heard was horrific, I can't imagine anybody going through this and not go insane. Even if he was guilty, he does not need to be tortured, we have to have evidence, and we never did, that's why we released them. it's a shamed time.

Read it, now listening to it on drives

This book is a must read or listen. I gobbled it up in 2 days, and now I listen to it in the car. I will never forget you or our brothers, Mansoor. Thank you for courageously sharing your story.

excellent read

I couldn't stop listening to this audible book. May the writer live in peace and find love.

Incredibly powerful

Our country destroyed the lives of so many due to ignorance, racism and the stupidity we allow to lead our government. Truly a great listen if yoyr education is purely from the US education system where we ignore so many of this countries errors, evil acts, and even slight faults. I have been suggested many a leadership book in the military, but nothing could have been nearly as eye opening as your writing. Thank you for sharing your story, and I am so deeply sorry for the way this country has treated you and your brothers.

A must listen

This is an amazing story of survival, compassion and resilience in the worst imaginable conditions

Awe inspiring

Prior to listening to this book, I had a very superficial knowledge of what took place in the prison camps in Guantanamo. Listening to the 1st hand account of the harrowing details of the torture and barbaric mistreatment suffered by one of the innocent victims of this operation was beyond disturbing. The fact that someone could survive this nightmare and produce an autobiography filled with a message of love, hope, perseverance and inspiration to the world is a testament to the spirit of a man grounded in his faith and dedication to his creator.