From a Washington Post story by Ahmed Naji headlined “Locked up in an Egyptian prison, I found solace in the library”:

In 2016, Ahmed Naji served 10 months of a two-year prison sentence in Egypt for “violating public decency” in his novel “Using Life.” He reflects on his time in prison in his new memoir, “Rotten Evidence,” describing the everyday experience of oppression and confinement. In this adapted excerpt from “Rotten Evidence,” Naji describes how books and reading helped bring him into the crosshairs of the law — and the role they played in his subsequent imprisonment.