Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73876 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-21
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

The Herald
'An astonishing achievement.'

Time Magazine
"A breathtaking and unselfpitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a
childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out. It's a
truly riveting memoir."

People Magazine
"Deeply moving, even uplifting...Beah's story, with its clear-eyed
reporting and literate particularity--whether he's dancing to rap, eating a
coconut or running toward the burning village where his family is
trapped--demands to be read." (Critic's Choice, Four stars)

Customer Reviews

Essential reading for a western teenager
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!
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
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.