A sweeping narrative set against the backdrop of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the U.S.-led war on terror that followed, Guantanamo’s Child chronicles the life of Canadian Omar Khadr. He was just 15 when he was shot and captured in Afghanistan and became a prized Pentagon captive. Khadr has now spent almost than a third of his life in U.S. custody in the notorious Guantanamo Bay, where he has undergone hundreds of hours of interrogation and endured “coercive techniques” by his captors that many argue amount to torture.

Khadr faces life in prison, charged with five war crimes including murder for the death of U.S. Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer. His case makes history as the first modern day war crimes trial of a juvenile and has drawn worldwide condemnation from legal, civil and human rights groups.

Award winning journalist Michelle Shephard probes the Khadr case from every angle, with exclusive interviews with the soldiers and Speer’s widow Tabitha. The book reveals unknown details about Khadr’s life being shuttled back and forth between Canada, Pakistan and Afghanistan and his father’s alliance with al Qaeda’s elite. Shephard also probes how the political backroom negotiations between Washington and Ottawa have left Canada now as the only Western nation to support Guantanamo and its trials.

Voted by Embassy Magazine as one of the most 20 most influential books of 2008, Guantanamo’s Child is not just an important book, but also a gripping legal thriller that’s difficult to put down.