A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

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

—JOHN CORRY, The Wall Street Journal

“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.”

—GILBERT CRUZ, Entertainment Weekly

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

—The New Yorker

“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.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“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.”

—LIZA NELSON, People (Critic’s Choice, four stars)

“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.”

—MALCOLM JONES, Newsweek.com

“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.”

—CAROL HUANG, The Christian Science Monitor

“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.”

—RICHARD THOMPSON, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

“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 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.”

—JOHN MARSHALL, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“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.”

—BRIAN DOYLE, The Oregonian

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

—RAYNA PATTON, VOYA

“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.”

—SEBASTIAN JUNGER, author of The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea

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

—STEVE COLL, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

“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.”

—WALTER ISAACSON, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe