A Long Way Gone

Description

At the age of twelve, Ishmael Beah fled attacking rebels in Sierra Leone 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. 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.

This is an extraordinary and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

“Ishmael’s story shows both the horror and the possibility of redemption. This is an unbearable book that has to be borne. Read it.” – The Globe and Mail

“The book is raw, run though with melancholy, but so honest and longing that hundreds of thousands have read it and it’s made Beah … arguably the most read African writer in contemporary literature.” – Dave Eggers, Vanity Fair

“Everyone in the world should read this book. … We should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human.” – Belinda Luscombe, The Washington Post

“No outsider could have written this book, and it’s hard to imagine that many insiders could do so with such acute vision, stark language, and tenderness. It is a heart-rending achievement.” – Melissa Fay Greene, Elle

“One of the most important war stories of our generation.” – Sebastian Junger Ishmael Beah  was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. He came to the United States when he was seventeen and graduated from Oberlin College in 2004. He is a UNICEF Ambassador and Advocate for Children Affected by War, a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Advisory Committee, and president of the Ishmael Beah Foundation. He lives with his wife in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter @Ishmael Beah.US

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