Paperback: Bad Men, by Clive Stafford Smith

As some of the alleged "worst of the worst" held at Guantánamo Bay face trial, this shattering account of the Cuban limbo is timelier than ever. Stafford Smith has defended over 50 inmates, but the systemic cruelty he shows feels almost less shocking than the downright incompetence. If arguments for torture have ever tempted you, he prescribes a cure. The abuses recounted here have "radicalised thousands, if not millions".