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| A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier | 
 enlarge | Author: Ishmael Beah
Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £14.99
Buy Used: £5.94
You Save: £9.05 (60%)
New (26) from £7.64
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 62912
Media: Hardcover
Edition: New title
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 0007247087
EAN: 9780007247080
ASIN: 0007247087
Publication Date: May 21, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Moving and shameful October 10, 2008
War in the west is fought by proxy. Our investments and interests drive conflict in thousands of situations. Sierra Leone was no different. But in Sierra Leone, the west turned it's back for too long. Ishmael Beah's story tells the tale of what happened before any action was taken to end the civil war that crippled one of West Africa's jewels. In honest and straightforward language, Beah narrates the horrors of war, perpetrated by him and by others and forces us to realise that war is not some far off idea we hear of in the news every few days, but a very real and horrific event that affects even the most vulnerable in society. All credit to the author who manages to tell an emotionally very difficult story in such poignant words.
Read this book August 27, 2008
It's taken me a long time to write a review on this book. It is not an easy book to write a review on. I'll start from the end result then and move backwards.
I think this is a very important book and I honestly believe everyone should read it. I finished it a couple of months ago and I imagine that barely a day has gone by without my thinking about it. Ishmael Beah and his horrific story are never far from my mind, but at at the same time I know that he escaped and now tours the world giving hope and guidance to others.
This book has been torn apart by reporters claiming the book to be inaccurate in terms of time frame and events. Other reviewers have criticised Beah's style of writing and emotional involvement in the story. I am not going to defend the author, I'm not going to say that it is okay if only most of the facts are correct and I'm not going to dwell on the fact that he is a human being and not a professional writer.
What I do take away from this book was that this young man was drafted into the war in Sierra Leone as a child soldier. I don't care if he was 13 or 15 when it happened and I don't care if he was a child soldier for two years or six months. The point is that he was pumped full of drugs by adults and he both witnessed the violent deaths of many young friends and personally killed several children and men.
The book left me with a desire to learn much more about Sierra Leone and I now know much more about the war in the region than I did initially. To me that means that the book fulfilled it's purpose. Read it
Essential reading for a western teenager July 19, 2008
Simply but superbly told story which provides us all with a real insight into what is going on in the barbaric African guerilla wars. Don't be put off by the idea that it is a blood-and-guts war novel. It is so much more than that; a first-hand account from an intelligent and sensitive young author who, in the true tradition of African story telling, brings his reader along, on the long and painful journey, with him. Considering the subject matter this is not a difficult read and is an enlightening and uplifting tale of good over evil and our human ability to endure anything whilst there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If not there already, this book should be included on the reading list of every western school. It would change lives and put so much into perspective for the privileged but aimless western youth.
5 stars! March 1, 2008
This book was amazing! I can honestly say that this is one of my favourite books, after finishing it; I passed it straight onto my sister, who loves it just as much as I do.
This book stayed with me a long time after I had finished reading it.
I would recommend this book to everyone.
I have great admiration for the author, I couldn't believe that a child had experienced such horrific events but with such courage.
The style of writing is informal so it feels like hes telling you face to face, It felt like you were right there with him.
A simple and powerful story February 19, 2008
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
This story is simply told. There are no fancy literary flourishes designed to manipulate the reader's emotions and no eloquent explanations designed to sway us to a particular viewpoint. It is the simple story of a child unwittingly caught up in the appalling violence of civil war. The narrator tells his own story. It is the story of how civil war destroys the normality of life in his village, of how he runs from the advancing violence, but eventually cannot avoid being drafted into its very heart as a child soldier. He describes the process of desensitization that allows him to survive the horrors he participates in and the even more difficult process of learning to re-engage with civil society once he has been rescued from the battlefield.
Some readers may be disappointed by the fact that the book provides only very limited historical background to the conflict in Sierra Leone and by the fact that the narrator engages in only very limited introspection about what he has experienced. The plot also contains a few scenes that come across as a bit contrived and unlikely, but none of this detracts from the picture that is painted of the horrors of child soldiers involved in civil war. The power of the story lies in its simplicity and in the fact that we know it is being told by someone who lived through it.
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