A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2007
If I find a book truly remarkable, I like to devour it rapidly in great big, greedy mouthfuls. Although Beah's book about his early childhood in Sierra Leone was riveting, I found I could only take small doses of his hellish and violent past.
The author's tale begins when he was 12 years old, a happy go-lucky child with a burgeoning interest in trendy clothes and rap music. Forced unexpectedly to flee from attacking rebel forces, Ishmael and his friends roamed aimlessly through forests and managed to survive by their wits and the grace of God before being captured by the military.... more