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About A Long Way Gone
In this gripping memoir, Ishmael Beah shares his experience fighting as a child in the civil war of Sierra Leone and his harrowing journey back to civilian life. Through Beah's eyes we watch as his childhood slips away with the outbreak of war. Once a happy and mischievous boy captivated by Shakespeare and American hip-hop music, Beah is soon lost in the chaos of war, bereft of family, and wandering the countryside. At 13, Beah seeks refuge at a government army base, only to be forcefully recruited to fight in the war. Coerced into a world of drugs and violence by the army, Beah and the other child soldiers find that they are capable of terrible acts. Giving a voice to the ongoing plight of child soldiers in West Africa and beyond, A Long Way Gone is an important book about the brutalities of war and its effects on children.