Guantanamo Boy

Anne Perera (author)

Harper Collins Publishers, Australia: 2009; 358pp

ISBN: 9780732288952

Genres: adventure, realistic fiction

Issues: ethics, identity, justice, religion, terrorism

The horrifying story of a teenager who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up being wrongfully detained in Guantanamo Bay.

Fifteen-year old Khalid is a normal English boy - he likes to play football (soccer), mess around with his mates, and is far too shy to tell a girl he likes her. Islam has no meaning for him and very little for his parents. For them, England is their home, about working hard in a peaceful country to build a new and better life for their children. Consequently, Khalid isn't terribly keen on the idea of returning to visit extended family, especially as he won't even get to see his favourite cousin, Tariq.

Shortly after their arrival in Pakistan, Khalid's father disappears. Khalid searches by retracing his father's steps and finds himself caught up in a horrific nightmare that eventually leads to hell on earth - Guantanamo Bay prison.

This very intense novel from first-time author, Anna Perera, captures in graphic detail the complex combination of fear and fundamentalism on both sides that has produced ‘the war on terror' as it has come to be known. Perera does not question the reality of terrorism by Al Quaida and the Taliban. She does quite poignantly and passionately challenge the methods used by those seeking to eliminate such acts of violence.

Khalid, a fifteen-year old English boy, is tortured and interrogated on the mere assumption that he is involved. Nothing he says is believed or investigated. He is prejudged and condemned without legal aid or assistance of any kind. His religious affiliation is assumed, his participation in acts of terror taken for granted.

Perera avoids the easy, black and white condemnation of either side and instead portrays American soldiers and Islamic prisoners as individuals. Khalid meets sadistic torturers who regard all Middle Easterners as terrorists at heart; but there are also soldiers merely obeying orders, confused by the conflict between their human instincts of kindness and compassion and what they have been told to think and do. Khalid sees prisoners who, like him, are caught up in the craziness of the hunt for terrorists; and those whose beliefs see the Americans as the enemy. But mostly what Khalid sees are inhumane conditions where humans are treated like animals and everything is about the abuse and control of power.

This is a challenging and painful read that questions humanity's tolerance of human rights violations in the name of justice and peace. Every reader should come away disturbed and wondering about the line that divides ‘terrorism' from ‘justice' and whether that line depends merely on one's perspective.

Warning: torture of prisoners, including lead character