In plain unremarkable prose, Beah provides a rare accounting of what it was like to be a child solider in the Sierra Leonian army during the civil war. After a traumatizing early life that robbed Ishamael Beah of his youth first as a refugee and then a child soldier in the Sierra Leonian army fighting the RUF during the civil war in the 1990s, Beah was rehabilitied through UNICEF programs and ultimately came to the US to study and write his memoirs.

Unflinchingly, he writes of the atrocities he and his fellow soldiers committed and the mentality that enabled him to enact such brutality. Fortunately, Beah's memoir is neither permeated with a wrenching need for forgiveness, nor a solipsistic demeaner, but rather he tells his war stories as he saw them, including how much he hated being told that what he did was 'not his fault'. Uniquely a personal story of a child soldier, Beah largely stays away the whys and wherefores of the politics and power that led to such a mess, and this is just as well since Beah was basically ignorant of it himself at the time. Nevertheless, from this book alone, the unfamiliar reader may have a hard time getting a sense of why the war happened in the first place, the current (as of writing) state of Sierra Leone, where the country will go from here, or any sense of how this type of warfare and use and abuse of children soldiers can be prevented in the future in Africa or elsewhere. ( )

Reviewed by Hayden (Class of 2012)
“The only wars I knew of were those that I had read about in books or seen in movies such as Rambo: First Blood”. A Long Way Gone is a true story of a young boy who lives in a western country in Africa, called Sierra Leone. In the book there is a war between the Rebels, who want to overthrow the current government, and the Army, which supports the country and its president. Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone. He now is a member of Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee. It was 1993 when he left his village to go to Mattru Jong to perform in a talent show. Little did he know that he would never return. In A Long Way Gone there was a lot of gore and violence. There was one instance when they had burned a man alive just because they wanted to. The violence and gore is needed though to help explain and describe the story. I liked this book because it was very fast paced and very vivid, which made me want to just keep reading. In my opinion the book was very moving and it made me think about how lucky I am to have all the things that I have. I would give it five stars for that reason. ( )

Reviewed by Ivo (Class of 2012)
Gore, violence, blood, and war are all packed into A Long Way Gone. Beah has to escape from a group of rebels that are taking over his village. Ishmael beah’s true story is told after his long and treacherous journey during 1993 when he experiences war and violence. A story about how a war would change Ishmael’s life and tear his family apart. His village is attacked by a group of rebels and Ishmael has to get away. He has to go through many villages and travel miles and miles so that he can escape the rebels. The book has a lot of action, suspense that will keep you going. This is a great book that everyone should read to experience the story of Ishmael Beah. ( )

An absolutely incredible story. I saw Ishmael Beah speak at Oberlin College and he was everything the book implied. Once again, it is amazing what the human spirit can endure! ( )

I saw the ads for this book when it came out and was curious, but somehow never got round to reading it. Then I found it cheap in Powells and made up for lost time. It’s an incredible read and unputdownable just doesn’t begin to describe it.

The world of the first chapter is close enough to ours to be easily imagined, but far enough away to fascinate. Boys play American music tapes and practice dance moves in the street and life is good. Then it all falls apart.

Seeing a world so real and normal change so drastically does something to the reader. You look around yourself and wonder how safe your own world is. How quickly things change.

But Ishmael and his friends are resilient. They move on. They create a life of their own, walking through hostile countryside, avoiding solders, seeking food, making and losing friends as they wonder if their families are still alive.

Hope inspired; hope betrayed; there are passages that are almost too hard to read and you weep for the child too suddenly turned to man. But again the story twists and scenes change around. Ishmael is thrust into yet another world, human kindness and human cruelty mixed.

This memoir of a boy soldier is a story that will stay with me, a must-read, and a tale that’s ultimately filled with hope despite its melancholy. ( )