Ishmael Beah - A Long Way Gone

“Beah… speaks in a distinctive voice, and he tells an important story.”

“Americans tend to regard African conflicts as somewhat vague events signified by horrendous concepts—massacres, genocide, mutilation—that are best kept safely at a distance. Such a disconnect might prove impossible after reading A Long Way Gone , …a clear-eyed, undeniably compelling look at wartime violence… Gone finds its power in the revelation that under the right circumstances, people of any age can find themselves doing the most unthinkable things.”

“His honesty is exacting, and a testament to the ability of children ‘to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.’”

“This absorbing account… goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare…Told in clear, accessible language by a young writer with a gifted literary voice, this memoir seems destined to become a classic firsthand account of war and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide.”

“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.”

“Beah is a gifted writer… Read his memoir and you will be haunted… It’s a high price to pay, but it’s worth it.”

“When Beah is finally approached about the possibility of serving as a spokesperson on the issue of child soldiers, he knows exactly what he wants to tell the world…‘I would always tell people that I believe children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.’ Others may make the same assertions, but Beah has the advantage of stating them in the first person. That makes A Long Way Gone all the more gripping.”

“In place of a text that has every right to be a diatribe against Sierra Leone, globalization or even himself, Beah has produced a book of such self-effacing humanity… A Long Way Gone transports us into the lives of thousands of children whose lives have been altered by war, and it does so with a genuine and disarmingly emotional force.”

“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.”

“Beah’s memoir is off the charts in its harrowing depictions of cruelty and depravity. What saves it from being a gratuitous immersion in violence is his brilliant writing, his compelling narrator’s voice, his gift for telling detail… This war memoir haunts the heart long after the eyes have finished the final page.”

“That Beah survived at all, let alone survived with any capacity for hope and joy at all, is stunning, and testament to incredible courage…That Beah could then craft a memoir like this, in his second language no less, is astounding and even thrilling, for A Long Way Gone is a taut prose arrow against the twisted lies of wars.”

“Beah writes his story with painful honesty, horrifying detail, and touches of remarkable lyricism…A must for every school collection.”

“ A Long Way Gone is one of the most important war stories of our generation… Ishmael Beah has not only emerged intact from this chaos, he has become one of its most eloquent chroniclers. We ignore his message at our peril.”

“This is a beautifully written book. Ishmael Beah describes the unthinkable in calm, unforgettable language.”

“ A Long Way Gone is a wrenching, beautiful, and mesmerizing tale. Beah’s amazing saga provides a haunting lesson about how gentle folks can be capable of great brutalities as well as goodness and courage. It will leave you breathless.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Beah’s is a story of loss and redemption—from orphan to fighter to international participant in human-rights conferences on child soldiers. While his account of loss is painful to read… it is his account of rehabilitation that most occupies the reader’s mind—how these children who become addicted to drugs and violence are able to re-enter the world of civil society.”