A LONG WAY GONE Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Ishmael Beah was just 11 when civil war ripped apart Sierra Leone and killed his parents and brothers. He became one of tens of thousands of child soldiers in that conflict, and in this disturbing memoir he describes how he survived almost three years of hell. He killed countless people, both in battle and by execution, all before he turned 16. He tells his story without self-pity or apology as he explains how he eventually came to understand that what happened was not his fault. Beah is not a trained narrator, and his accent is occasionally difficult to understand, but it's impossible to imagine how anyone else could read this intensely personal story with more power than he does. D.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 07]