Product Description

A compelling novel tackling the topical issues of the Sierra Leonian civil war and the use of child soldiers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #435570 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 230 pages

The Guardian
‘Considered and multi-layered story of a Sierra Leone family…remarkable for its slowed, measured pulse and its calm analysis’

About the Author
Delia Jarrett Macauley was born in Hertfordshire, of Sierra Leonian parents. She is a writer, broadcaster and academic, and is the author of The Life of Una Marson, 1905-65 (Manchester University Press, 1998), a biography of the BBC's first black programme maker, She has presented features on Radio 3, and has taught at various universities, including Leeds and Birkbeck College. She lives in Clapham.

Customer Reviews

GETTING UNDERNEATH THE DIRTY SKIN OF INNOCENT WARRIORS
The issue of child soldiers in West Africa's recent bloodiest of wars in Sierra Leone would not be too many people's choice of a setting for a debut novel. That this is the very topic Delia Jarrett-Macaulay grapples with in her initial literary offering is therefore quite significant and reflects a deep-rooted sense of conviction which permeates this moving, haunting and eventually uplifting tale of lost innocence and rediscovered humanity. It is estimated that there are over a million children who were co-opted into the ethnic conflicts of Sierra Leone over the past ten years. Their stories have only ever dribbled out of the war zones in staccato bursts of tabloid sensationalism, just enough to keep us interested while not being examined in sufficient detail to provide as intuitive an understanding of the psychological, emotional and physical scars that these children must have endured.

Citizen, the protagonist of the novel, is an eight year old boy who was released back into his home community after the war, to find himself ostracised, frightened and mis-trusted by all and sundry, for his part in the savage murder of his grandmother by a mob. The arrival of his cousin Julia from England results in a challenging re-examination of the family dynamics. Julia has come to establish the truth of the terrible event and she sets to work on re-connecting the shattered parts of Citizen's body and mind.

This is a remarkably accomplished and confident piece of story-telling, de-layering with every page the fragility of the moral veneer of our humanity. Citizen generates in turn feelings of horror, sympathy, frustration and hope in the reader. The underlying sentiment of this story is complex in its simplicity: War is a nasty place and it kills the souls of all survivors, regardless of colour, creed, social class and age. Moses, Citizen & Me brings this to life in startling vividity. Read it.

Haunting, magical, poetic, down to earth and funny
You don't expect so much humour in a book about child soldiers, in particular one who has killed his own grandmother. Jarrett Macauley blends magical realism, the western cannon and poetic humour as well as wisdom as she looks at the lives of these traumatised ex soldiers, who are also just kids trying to learn and re-find themselves in the world. The rainforest is brought to life for the reader, the sense of being in tropical Africa is very strong - the evocation of the immense cultural network that these educated people can tap into is also fascinating. But the best thing is the story! I can't recommend it highly enough, even if you 'never read serious novels' or don't care particularly about Africa, you will care about this book.

Understanding the real consequences of war
The war in Sierra Leone was avidly covered by the BBC as a result of British government/army intervention which succeeded in bringing an end to the atrocities for so many innocent people; but how many people who religiously watched this media/political coverage stopped to think about the effects on children? on a whole generation of students whose education was disrupted? how their families could possibly re-integrate them back into what was left of family life if and when they could possibly block out/forgive the fact that they had been rebel soldiers in order to avoid certain death themselves?

Delia plays an excellent role in providing fertile soil for the imagination of those who want to think about the real consequences of war on 3 generations traumatised by 10 years of terror.