A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become the 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, he had been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and finally, to heal.

Also available on CD as an unabridged audiobook, read by the author. Please email academic@macmillan.com for more information.

"What is it about African wars that is so disturbing? Why do they unsettle us so? . . . The great benefit of Ishmael Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone, is that it may help us arrive at an understanding of this situation. Beah's autobiography is almost unique, as far as I can determine—perhaps the first time that a child soldier has been able to give literary voice to one of the most distressing phenomena of the late 20th century: the rise of the pubescent (or even prepubescent) warrior-killer . . . A Long Way Gone is his first, remarkable book . . . Beah's memoir joins an elite class of writing: Africans witnessing African wars . . . A Long Way Gone makes you wonder how anyone comes through such unrelenting ghastliness and horror with his humanity and sanity intact. Unusually, the smiling, open face of the author on the book jacket provides welcome and timely reassurance. Ishmael Beah seems to prove it can happen."—William Boyd, The New York Times Book Review

"Everyone in the world should read this book. Not just because it contains an amazing story, or because it's our moral, bleeding-heart duty, or because it's clearly written. We should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human . . . I don't think it's possible to 'understand' this book. A Long Way Gone says something about human nature that we try, most of the time, to ignore. Humans can be murderous, and that doesn't pertain in any way to religion or politics or ideology. These boys, on either side, didn't have the foggiest idea of the reasons for their war. The proselytizers, colonists, foreign entrepreneurs, politicians, even cheesy moviemakers all played a part in it—committing murder by proxy. The murder itself is ubiquitous. The faint good news in these pages is that if we're lucky, very lucky, we may be able to sneak out of this life without being either murderer or victim. But it's nothing to count on."—Carolyn See, The Washington Post Book World

"[Beah's] honesty is exacting, and a testament to the ability of children 'to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.'"—The New Yorker

"This is the powerful, poignant story of Ishmael Beah, who grew up in Sierra Leone, and at age twelve was displaced and torn from his family because of war, and began to wander with a group of displaced boys, who endured brutal hardships and were also taught to kill and brutalize people before maturity. Later on, Beah joins the government forces and eventually finds himself in a program to rehabilitate children who have become soldiers, and later on he escapes all of this as a refugee to USA. Although not so detailed with the specifics of history and the Sierra Leone civil war and 'blood diamonds' and 'lost boys', this makes up for it in Beah's vivid personal detail of how he was torn from his family, and thrown into a life of survival and savagery, and how later through all of it he managed to later realize his hopes and dreams. To me, it shows the resilience of the human spirit and also how even though sometimes in order to survive, our life directs us into circumstances beyond our control, and yet, we still all have the capability to find compassion, hope and peace within ourselves. I cannot imagine how someone like Ishmael Beah could live through all of this, and today become an inspiration and beacon of hope for millions of people. Thank you Ishmael for sharing your story with the world!"—Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea

"What Beah saw and did during [the war] has haunted him ever since, and if you read his stunning and unflinching memoir, you'll be haunted, too . . . It would have been enough if Ishmael Beah had merely survived the horrors described in A Long Way Gone. That he has written this unforgettable firsthand account of his odyssey is harder still to grasp. Those seeking to understand the human consequences of war, its brutal and brutalizing costs, would be wise to reflect on Ishmael Beah's story."—Chuck Leddy, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Beah's is a story of loss and redemption—from orphan to fighter to international participant in human-rig...