Rotten Evidence

A 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award FinalistIn February 2016, Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in prison for "violating public modesty," after anexcerpt of his novel Using Life reportedly caused a reader to experience heart palpitations. Naji ultimatelyserved ten months of that sentence, in a group cell block in Cairo's Tora Prison.Rotten Evidence is a chronicle of those months. Through Naji's writing, the world of Egyptian prison comesinto vivid focus, with its cigarette-based economy, home-made chess sets, and well-groomed fixers. Naji'sstorytelling is lively and uncompromising, filled with rare insights into both the mundane and grand questionshe confronts.How does one secure a steady supply of fresh vegetables without refrigeration? How does one write and revisea novel in a single notebook? Fight boredom? Build a clothes hanger? Negotiate with the chief of intelligence?And, most crucially, how does one make sense of a senseless oppression: finding oneself in prison for the actof writing fiction. Genuine and defiant, this book stands as a testament to the power of the creative mind, in theface of authoritarian censorship.