|
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier | 
| Author: Ishmael Beah
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy Used: $3.97
You Save: $18.03 (82%)
New (85) Used (191) Collectible (13) from $3.97
Rating:  393 reviews
Sales Rank: 1943
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 0374105235
Dewey Decimal Number: 966.404
EAN: 9780374105235
ASIN: 0374105235
Publication Date: February 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Standard shipping arrives within 6-8 business days. This is the textbook only unless otherwise noted. Edge Wear
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life.
“Why did you leave Sierra Leone?”
“Because there is a war.”
“You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?”
“Yes, all the time.”
“Cool.”
I smile a little.
“You should tell us about it sometime.”
“Yes, sometime.”
This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become 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’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 388 more reviews...
 This book needs to be read by everyone... August 25, 2008
E. Earle (Orlando, fl United States)
Rarely has a book had such an impact on me. Ismael Beah's epic journey from carefree childhood to inhuman adolescence to enlightened adulthood tells the story of hope for mankind. As Beah has said, it puts a human voice to the war and violence in his country of Sierra Leone, and, in the larger perspective, to all violence, war and hatred around the world. I heard Ismael Beah speak in person yesterday at Florida Gulf Coast University where he addressed the incoming freshmen with his message of love and hope. In the tradition of his people, he is a true storyteller and he tells his story with conviction. If ever a book should be read by everyone living in today's world, this is it.
great read August 25, 2008
K. Carlson (illinois, USA)
very hard to put this book down, heart wrenching and difficult to read at times, but worth every minute of it. Very well written
 2nd Worst Book I've Read in 2008 August 24, 2008
Thomas Bratt (Chicago, IL)
I have no doubt that Beah experienced things that I can't imagine and that no child should see, but he writes it poorly. I am all for stories, which is why I read, but think they need to be told well. A given medium needs to be done properly to be most effective. Beah does it poorly. I'd give his book a D. He tells his story so badly that the reader has no idea the point, plot, relevance, or validity of the story. In no way do I want to make light of what he experienced, but he did it so poorly that he did a disservice to all books. This was a waste of the paper it was printed on.
Prob. the best book I ever read... August 21, 2008
Jillian (United States)
Never in my life have I been so involved in a book as this one. For one person to have actually lived this life it is amazing to me. A wonderfully written book.
A must read for every teenager and parent August 13, 2008
L. M. SALTER (St. Louis, MO USA)
This book should be read by every teenager in the United States and there parents. Our children of today think life is so hard on them. If they read this book as written by someone who had life turned upside down on them and came out with a purpose they would know that they have a pretty good life in the USA. He will never be able to get his childhood back but can now recover from the things no child should have to see or go through.
I really enjoyed this book he made you think that he was a "storyteller of his village". I do wish that he had added a couple of chapters at the end on how he is doing today and what he is going to do next.
|
|
|
Can't find the right gift? Try a Gift Certificate
| |
