The Book Prize Index

Cobalt Red: How the blood of the Congo powers our lives

Siddharth Kara

This is the untold story of the human toll that powers our daily lives, as thousands of workers - many of them children - dig by hand in the cobalt mines in the Congo, to provide the raw materials for the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that charge our phones, laptops, and electric vehicles.

Society & CultureSociety & Culture · medium confidenceSociety & Culture81 signalsLlm Classifier: Society & Culture -> Society & CultureAward Category: FT Business Book of the Year -> Business & EconomicsKeyword Classifier: Business & Economics -> Business & EconomicsBlack History & CultureAfrica & the African DiasporaMigration & Diaspora

Award History

0 wins · 3 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Pulitzer Prize in General NonfictionMajor2024FinalistSecondary source
FT Business Book of the YearMajor2023ShortlistSecondary source
PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction2024FinalistOfficial source
View all award history (3)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    The everyday conveniences we rely on—powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries—are enabled by the human toll of hand-dug cobalt mining in the Congo, affecting thousands of workers, including many children.

    Model confidence 72%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    30 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 64%.