A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier

The first-person account of a 25-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy. 'My new friends have begun to suspect that 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. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated 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.