Synopsis
Along with millions of others in Sierra Leone, Ishmael Beah found his life torn from its mooring by the cataclysmic events of the 1991 civil war. He was 12 years old when he lost his family and became a wandering refugee, and by 15 he had joined the thousands of child soldiers waging war across the devastated nation. Though he grew up surrounded by atrocity, violence, and chaos, Beah somehow managed, with the help of a UNICEF-sponsored organization, to leave his soldier life behind, and eventually fled the country to America. Ishmael Beah's vivid, brilliant, and harrowing account is a gripping testament to the nature of life in a country where the foundation of civilization has crumbled and the concept of childhood has tragically disappeared.

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. 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 25 years old, 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 Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.--From publisher description.

Details
Publication Date:	2007-02-13

Size
Length:	229 pages
Height:	8.5 in
Width:	6.0 in
Thickness:	1.0 in
Weight:	13.6 oz

Industry Reviews
"It is a vision of hell that Beah gives us, one worthy of Hieronymus Bosch, but as though depicted in primary colors by a naïve artist....A LONG WAY GONE makes you wonder how anyone comes through such unrelenting ghastliness and horror with his humanity and sanity intact."
(02/25/2007)

"[A LONG WAY GONE] goes beyond even the best journalistic effort in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare....Told in clear, accessible language by a young writer with a gifted literary voice, this memoir seems destined to become a classic." (starred review)
(12/18/2006)