Free Captivity (Book) (Volatile Disposition)

Free Captivity is a book by John Mohammad Mueller (real name Mohammad bin Nayef) written in 2073. The book recalls Mueller's time as a captive of American forces during the North African War and his further travels to Hokkaido and other warzones; and is generally considered to be one of the best works of all time. The book was #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for thirteen weeks straight and has inspired a number of similar works.

Background
Mohammad bin Nayef was born July 13th, 2032, in Porto-Novo, Benin. He was raised as a devout Muslim after the establishment of the Lower Islamic Union and joined the Lower Islamic Army at the age of 16 in 2048. Nayef remained a recruit much of his life (due to the corrupt ranking system instituted in the LIU) and during the North African War, fought in Accra and was captured by American forces.

Nayef later spoke of his capture as a blessing, reportedly saying:"Food! Food! They gave us food in that prison, and it was enough for us. Day after day we had been told to starve for allah, and then the Americans come and invade and just hand out bread like it's nothing. I realised early enough that everything I had been told about America was a lie."After the war ended, Nayef, left without his family due to the mass civilian suicides in the former Lower Islamic Union, left the country for California, where he stayed for roughly a month. Nayef travelled across the US for seven months and was consequently hired by The Story newspaper, after which, with the escalation of the nanobotlia infection in Hokkaido, Nayef travelled to Japan to visit the war-torn area and report on the situation.

Nayef earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2071 for his reporting on the Hokkaido crisis, which Washington Post reporter John Kasings described as 'groundbreaking... brutally honest, and unable to hold back a word of what he thinks.' He reportedly began working on Free Captivity in late December 2071.

Synopsis
Free Captivity is written in the First and Third person perspectives.

The story begins with Nayef recounting the American Landings at Accra and how he was captured. It shifts to his perspective and opinion of how life was like as POW, and how he began to lose trust in the the teachings of ISAWA. One of the most defining parts of the story, the concept of 'justice', begins to take form in this section.

He then shifts to recounting his short week watching the end of the North African War in 2067 and how he was eventually able to procure an education. He applied for a visa to the United States, which was accepted in February 2068 and allowed him to travel to the US. There, he speaks of how he saw the American definition of Justice, and reflects upon the differences between the upbringing he was given and the system the US withheld.

Nayef finally begins to cover the story of how he ended up in Hokkaido covering the nanobotlia crisis. He writes about the reactions of the Japanese civilians he met in Sapporo and other parts of Hokkaido to the crisis, and of how he came to the opinion that there is no 'justice' as one defines it, only a right to define the correct path forwards. He ends the book with the simple phrase,"Murderers are not monsters, they're men. And that's the most frightening thing about them."

Reception
Free Captivity  earned critical acclaim for its depictions of the people in the places that Nayef covered, particularly for the humane and inexplicably polite way Nayef spoke of those he met. The Japan Times columnist Yukiko Tachibana described his depiction of his characters as 'human... rivalling the inextricable way that many of the greatest writers made their characters; not machine or monster, but human'. The London Tribune journalist Edwin Allen spoke of the book as being 'quite so reluctant to stay away from humanity... and that is where it excels'.

The book was also a commercial success, selling 4.3 million copies in the first three weeks, and remaining on the New York Times Bestseller List for thirteen consecutive weeks. The book received the BBC Book of the Year award for 2071 as well.