num_pages: 229
description: The devastating story of war through the eyes of a child soldier. Beah tells how, at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and became a soldier.My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life.“Why did you leave Sierra Leone?”“Because there is a war.”“You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?”“Yes, all the time.”“Cool.”I smile a little.“You should tell us about it sometime.”“Yes, sometime.” This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.
language: English
title: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
titlecomplete: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
characters: Alhaji, Moriba, Talloi, Esther, Musa, Kanei, "Junior" Beah, Jumah, Saidu, Ishmael Beah, Khalilou
genres: Biography, Africa, Sierra Leone, School, War, Nonfiction, Autobiography, History, Memoir, Biography Memoir
ratings_count: 184460
places: New York City, New York, Sierra Leone
awards: awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: ALA Alex Award, awardedAt: 1262332800000
name: Lincoln Award, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: NAIBA Book of the Year
category: Nonfiction, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award
publisher: Sarah Crichton Books