A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is an autobiographical account of his survival as a young boy recruited as a child soldier.

He relates the three years of his life without sensationalism. We know that he survives as the novel begins in a high school in New York City. We then accompany Beah and a group of young boys who become displaced by a civil war that disrupts everything that was solid in their lives. They travel between towns in Sierra Leone trying to escape recruitment into the rebel forces.

Ismael Beah’s account unmasks the heinous crimes around the mining of conflict diamonds; exposes the atrocities of greedy governments and the senseless suffering and killing of innocent victims; and condemns the destruction of institutions that define a civilized society.

Underlying his raw confessions of his brutality and vulnerability, is the hope that in his present life as a human rights activist, he can redeem himself and make a difference.