A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Ishmael Beah

Apr 2007 · Sold by Sarah Crichton Books

About this ebook

In A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah tells a riveting story in his own words: 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.

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.

This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

Ratings and reviews

100. A long way gone: memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah. 229 pages. The author of this story was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. It is his story, in 5th grade level prose, of how he lost his family and was pressed into a radical army as a child. His little village is usurped by violent radicals against the government. For the first 100 pages, he raced through the jungles and eludes the vicious attackers. Mayhem is everywhere—broken bodies, homes, and even the fabric of their society. Then, he is forced to join a homespun army that fights against these radicals. He is given amphetamines, grass, and cocaine daily; these numb him and help indoctrinate him into the killer mode. He becomes a vicious killer for three years, but is eventually captured by UNICEF officials and sent to a rehab center for seven months. His uncle adopts him, but the uncle ironically dies when his new town is attacked again. Beah flees, and begins a new life in America. This is NOT a wellp-crafted piece of prose that will become a classic. Rather, it is a first-person narrative that tells outsiders what too many places in our world are like: violent, insane, frightening landscapes wherein children are abused and forced to become adults long before they have been allowed to experience childhood. Novels like this and Sold are both signs of these times: 3rd world countries are in chaos; each of these narratives is a plea for assistance. They are, to my way of thinking, the Dickensian “worst of times.” As in the time of A Tale of Two Cities, the question remains-will we/can we do something about these atrocities? Or are we resigned to our own struggles: two mortgages, high fuel prices, and trying to pay for our kids’ college tuition? In the meantime, books like this are chroniclers of man’s on-going inhumanity to fellow mankind. ***Three Star rating.

i read this book when i was very young (im now 13), perhaps around 8-9 years old. I was horrified, and never really got over the impact it had on my outlook. It was always in the back of my mind, and I took comfort in the fact that someone HAD to do SOMETHING. But I heard nothing about it, and it soon started to slip out of my thoughts. I struggled, and tried to remember what it was called, or who it was by, but to no avail. That's how empowering this book is. You know you made an impact when and 8-9 year old knows about nd loves your book. When i read this book< and absorbed all of the violence and horror. i thought about my life and what it was worth< what it would be like to start doing the things he did in a couple years> i was appalled. That book taught me so much, and I will be forever grateful.

This book was my first real exposure to the realities child soldiers face every day in parts of Africa. The memoir is written simply and honestly--conveying genuine emotion without preaching or moralizing. It both tells a remarkable personal story of resilience and survival and paints a picture of a world and a life most of us could hardly imagine. This book will opened my eyes to things I doubt I'll ever forget and it inspired me to research more about this issue and investigate what I could do to make a difference.

About the author

Ishmael Beah was born in 1980 in Sierra Leone, West Africa. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vespertine Press, LIT, Parabola, and numerous academic journals. He is a UNICEF Ambassador and Advocate for Children Affected by War; a member of the Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Advisory Committee; an advisory board member at the Center for the Study of Youth and Political Violence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; visiting scholar at the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University; visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights at Rutgers University; cofounder of the Network of Young People Affected by War (NYPAW); and president of the Ishmael Beah Foundation. He has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and many panels on the effects of war on children. His book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier has been published in over thirty languages and was nominated for a Quill Award in 2007. Time magazine named the book as one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2007, ranking it at number three. Ishmael Beah is a graduate of Oberlin College with a B.A. in Political Science and resides in Brooklyn, New York.