Ishmael Beah: A Long Way Gone - Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

[RobertM]

Ishmael Beah now lives in the United States. His present life is much different than the one he lived in the mid 1990's.

At age eleven, he was drafted into the Sierra Leone army to fight the rebels. Some of his friends were even younger, and had to drag their AK-47's along the ground because they were not big enough to actually CARRY them. Their superiors used threats, drugs, alcohol, and executions to keep order in the ranks.
I recently read this book, and I call it stunning, inspiring, and often disturbing. Beah saw and did things no child should ever experience.

Not long ago, Beah came to Seattle to speak about his experiences. He's soft-spoken, a very nice guy.
I highly recommend this book, which is certain to be nominated for several awards.

 

[Mattyj]

I just purchased this today. It looks heartbreaking and amazing all at once. Can't wait to get into it.

 

[Libra]

I had suggested it for BOTM.Mattyj,let me know how you find it when you are done.

 

[Ummm]

this book is haunting. can't say it's my fav book, but one that makes an impact on me.

 

[Inkheart]

Just picked this book up in work and am a few chapters in. I was reading a bit about the author online and came across a site that outlines how some papers were discovered in Sierra Leone which would shed suspicion and doubt on the factual timeline in the book. Beah may have been a child solider for two months when he was 15 as opposed to 2 years when he was 13.

 

[steinbeckfan89]

I read this book in one day when when i was in 9th grade. I was suspended from school and i had to go to the schools suspension center, for 6 hours. I took that book with me and i read it non stop. It's a very good book, its one of those that you just get so enthralled in you can't put it down.

 

[Gilgamesh]

Ok. I read this book. To me, this book was like a long magazine article - reporting what's going on in a land that not too many reporters can safely report about.

What did I learn from it. That there are brutal killings going on the other side of the world.

What can I do about it - don't take me as someone who doesn't care, but nothing much I can do.

I am aware of it, but <shrug>. At the end, I don't feel the book moved me.

In my opinion, if this was written from a perspective of some NGO volunteer (i.e.: a member of Doctors without Borders), this may had more impact toward readers.