List Books To A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
| Original Title: | A Long Way Gone. Memoirs of a Boy Soldier |
| ISBN: | 0374105235 (ISBN13: 9780374105235) |
| Edition Language: | English URL http://us.macmillan.com/alongwaygone/IshmaelBeah |
| Characters: | Ishmael Beah, Musa, Esther, "Junior" Beah, Talloi, Kanei, Alhaji, Jumah, Moriba, Saidu, Khalilou |
| Setting: | Sierra Leone New York City, New York(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | ALA Alex Award (2008), Lincoln Award Nominee (2010), NAIBA Book of the Year for Nonfiction (2007), Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award Nominee (2008) |
Ishmael Beah
Hardcover | Pages: 229 pages Rating: 4.16 | 156226 Users | 10428 Reviews
Describe Of Books A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
| Title | : | A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier |
| Author | : | Ishmael Beah |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 229 pages |
| Published | : | February 13th 2007 by Sarah Crichton Books |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Cultural. Africa. Biography. War |
Chronicle As Books A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
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.
Rating Of Books A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ratings: 4.16 From 156226 Users | 10428 ReviewsJudgment Of Books A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
This book will make you cry. It will also make you realise how blessed are we to have this life we live.I will never. Never. Complain about my childhood again.Okay, that's not true. I will. But when I let out a sad sigh of remorse that I didn't figure out exactly why I really wanted to be friends with that one guy in band in high school until it was way too late to do anything about it, I will at least think, "At least I wasn't killing people and snorting gunpowder."Like most of you reading this, I knew absolutely nothing about what was happening in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. I didn't know there
In the 1990s Sierra Leone, a small country in West Africa, found itself sinking into a very bloody internal war between corrupt government soldiers and armed rebels. It lasted at least ten years, and while now the country is stable and has a booming tourism industry, during the war countless innocent civilians were slaughtered and hundreds of boys were recruited by both sides.Ishmael is twelve when the rebels arrive at his small mining town in the south-west, not so far from the ocean. He is
As an over-privileged white American, it can be tough to even begin to fathom the struggles and atrocities that Africans face. When I started reading this book, I wondered if the stories Ishmael Beah would tell would be so horrific that I couldn't continue to read, much less comprehend, them. However, Meah tells his tale with a blend of humor, distance, and insight that took me right to the edge. Any further, and I think I would have shut down. Any less far, and I believe I wouldn't have gotten
A glimpse into the world of the child soldier. For two years as a young teenager, the author was forcibly recruited into a Sierra Leonean rebel army which exploited children for use as soldiers. Under age, under equipped and under trained, placed into situations young teenagers should never be placed into, their lives were frequently cut short. Those that survived this brutal and violent universe live with the trauma for the rest of their lives. This important memoir shows the appalling depths
I finally got around to reading the highly lauded A Long Way Gone.Africa breaks your heart. Thats what David Denby of The New Yorker concluded at the very beginning of his review for Blood Diamond, drawing on the then recent releases of Hotel Rwanda, The Constant Gardener, And The Last King of Scotland.I concur, having read Ishmael Beahs memoir relatively close on the heels of Dave Eggers What is the What and Beasts of No Nation. I suppose I could complete the cycle with This Voice in My Heart,
I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry for what I am about to do. It seems unbelievably curmudgeonly of me to judge this book harshly given its subject matter. But I can't let the deep empathy I feel for this former Sierra Leonean child soldier cloud my judgement of his memoir. I give him five stars - more! - for his courage, his honesty and the remarkable work he is doing to shed light on the life of child soldiers in Sierra Leone and elsewhere; to raise consciousness and motivate political action to put
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