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A Long Way Gone
Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah


8.7

based on 11 reviews
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based on 9 votes
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Official Publisher Site

Ishmael Beah tells the story of how, as a boy, he fled attacking rebels in his violent homeland of Sierra Leone, and by the age of thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army and became a child soldier, capable of terrible acts.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 240 pages
02/13/2007
$22.00

ISBN: 0374105235

Nonfiction
Biographies & Memoirs

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Library Journal James Thorsen

Beah writes with frankness and honesty about his experiences but also with other people in mind; his account of the healing process after the horrors he saw is remarkable. His book, especially relevant in today's world, should be in all high school, public, and academic libraries. [1 Mar 2007, p.58]

PopMatters Connie Ogle

Beah’s uncompromising voice is a potent elegy for their suffering, a powerful reminder of the innocent casualties of war.

Publishers Weekly

This memoir seems destined to become a classic firsthand account of war and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide. [18 Dec 2006, p.55]

The New York Times Book Review William Boyd

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.

Washington Post Carolyn See

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.

Wall Street Journal John Corry

Mr. Beah's recountings are unadorned, believable and unsparing as he tells us about a conflict we never knew much about.

Chicago Tribune Jeff Rice

[A] compelling and important book.

Christian Science Monitor Carol Huang

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.

Entertainment Weekly Gilbert Cruz

[A Long Way Gone] is a clear-eyed, undeniably compelling look at wartime violence -- whose viciousness becomes profoundly disturbing when one realizes it's been committed by boys barely in their teens.

Kirkus Reviews

Beah's halting narrative has confusing time shifts, but it's hideously effective in conveying the essential horror of his experiences. [15 Jan 2007, p.58]

Booklist Hazel Rochman

One boy's horrific memoir captures the reality of those distant news pictures of kids with guns somewhere in Africa. [15 Nov 2006, p.19]

The average user rating for this book is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Charles gave it a10:
An unbelieveable story that provides much needed insight into the events of not only Sierra Leone during the 1990s but happened and is happening in other African countries. It reminds us that even though the Holocaust seems so far gone, genocide continues to happen unchecked. This is a very well written book that simply cannot be put down until finished, which may only take a few hours. By far this is the best book of 2007.

shannon f gave it a10:
this book is poignant, and evokes emotion like nothing else i've ever read.

Thomas M gave it a10:
This book is a very touchy, straight from the source memoir of events that are only given brief airtime in the media in our country. After watching an interview with Beah and hearing him talk about his troubles as well the book seems 100 times better as well.

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A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

A Long Way Gone
Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah