42 WRITERS ON 42 DAYS

In 'Waiting', Hisham Matar brilliantly employs the metaphor so memorably mined by Samuel Beckett to give a sense of the mental torment suffered by those imprisoned without charge.

His story is one of 42 short pieces contributed by writers in support of Liberty's campaign against the UK government's proposed extension of pre-charge detention to 42 days. Other prominent names whose work appears on the 42 Writers for Liberty site include Julian Barnes, A.L. Kennedy, Michel Faber, David Mitchell, Monica Ali and Mohsin Hamid.

Matar's debut novel, In the Country of Men, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2006.