A Long Way Gone

The first-person account of a 26-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy.‘My new friends have begun to suspect that 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. There are more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide and it is estimated there are some 300 |000 child soldiers fighting. 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. Ishmael Beah | now twenty-five years old | tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve in Sierra Leone | 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 he was capable of truly terrible acts.This is a rare and mesmerizing account | told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.