Long Way Gone : The True Story of a Child Soldier

English

ISBN: 0374105235

EAN: 9780374105235

Category: Biography & Autobiography / Military/History / Africa / West/Biography & Autobiography / General/

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Release Date: 02/09/2007

Synopsis: My new friends have begun to suspect I havent 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, hed 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.

Awards: Alex Awards – null  Bill Duthie Booksellers Choice Award – null  Christopher Book Awards – null  Garden State Teen Book Award – null  Los Angeles Times Book Prizes – null  New York Times Notable Books of the Year – null  Original Voices Award – null  Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year – null  Quill Awards – null 

Long Way Gone : The True Story of a Child Soldier

Illustrated: Yes

Format: Hardcover

Height: 0.86 inches

Width: 5.9 inches

Length: 8.56 inches

Weight: 12.59 oz

Pages: 240