num_pages: 215
description: ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED TO BE FAIR ABOUT ALL THE THINGS HE DOES HERE ON EARTH.These are the words of the boy soldier Birahima in the final masterpiece by one of Africa’s most celebrated writers, Ahmadou Kourouma. When ten-year-old Birahima's mother dies, he leaves his native village in the Ivory Coast, accompanied by the sorcerer and cook Yacouba, to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by rebels and forced into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, minimal rations of food, a small supply of dope and a tiny wage. Fighting in a chaotic civil war alongside many other boys, Birahima sees death, torture, dismemberment and madness but somehow manages to retain his own sanity. Raw and unforgettable, despairing yet filled with laughter, Allah Is Not Obliged reveals the ways in which children's innocence and youth are compromised by war.
language: English
title: Allah Is Not Obliged
titlecomplete: Allah Is Not Obliged
genres: Fiction, African Literature, Western Africa, France, Liberia, Ivory Coast, War, Africa, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 1902
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Prix Renaudot, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: French-American Foundation Translation Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Prix Amerigo Vespucci, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Premio Grinzane Cavour
category: Narrativa Straniera
publisher: Anchor