README.txt: A Memoir

"Manning reads her book in a sharp voice that is clearly accustomed to marshaling information..."- Washington Post

"[Manning's] text and performance create a blistering autobiography that is both observant and instructive."- AudioFile

"In both content and narration, Manning displays a keen ability to imbue this detailed account of her life and activism with both sarcasm and sincerity." - Library Journal

"In this revealing memoir, Manning details her experience in military intelligence and her ultimate decision to share classified information with WikiLeaks in this revealing memoir. Listeners will appreciate Manning’s voice as she explores her reasoning for her decisions and accepts her fate with dignity."- Booklist

This program is read by the author.

An intimate, revealing memoir from one of the most important activists of our time.

While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army in 2010, Chelsea Manning disclosed more than seven hundred thousand classified military and diplomatic records that she had smuggled out of the country on the memory card of her digital camera. In 2011 she was charged with twenty-two counts related to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military records, and in 2013 she was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison.

The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition, seeking hormones through the federal court system. In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence and she was released from prison.

In README.txt, Manning recounts how her pleas for increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside a fight to defend her rights as a trans woman. Manning details the challenges of her childhood and adolescence as a naive, computer-savvy kid, what drew her to the military, and the fierce pride she has about the work she does. This powerful, observant memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of our digital, information-driven age.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.