A Long Way Gone
Written by Ishmael Beah
What if everyone around you was dying?
Imagine what would happen if your town was shot up by soldiers. Imagine what would happen if your country was ravaged by war, torn apart by battlegrounds, and plagued by constant fighting. How would you react? What would you do? What would it take to keep living?
The Life Of Ishmael Beah
In the book, A Long Way Gone, written by Ishmael Beah, we learn the challenges faced by a young boy growing up in rural Sierra Leone as it is torn apart by a conflict that's been devastating the country for years. His village is attacked by rebel soldiers, which scatter his family and friends across the jungle that is Sierra Leone. The choices he's forced to make, the conditions and situations he's forced to endure at a meager age of 11 years old into his teenage years are those that are unimaginable to any of us. He goes on to follow a road that leads him to commit many crimes that haunt him to this day. As you learn, you understand the choices he made, and how he was lead to be the person he is today.
Read The Book
Ishmael was only one of thousands of child soldiers that were used to fight wars under collapsed governments all across the globe. While reading A Long Way Gone, you can put yourself in their shoes, you can gain a piece of understanding for the children that have been brainwashed to be people they truly are not. You'll withstand the harsh climate of the African jungle, the mental weathering of being chased away from all forms of human companionship, and the utter insanity of living a life of chaos and bloodshed. I believe all people need to read this book to understand, to relate to, the horrors all people are capable of, so they can be prevented and helped end.
Ishmael Beah
Ishmael Beah was born in a rural village in Sierra Leone as a child called Mogbwemo, located in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, and when it was attacked by rebels, he was forced to flee. He was split apart from everyone he knew and spent months wandering south with a group boys he vaguely had connections with. When he was 13 he was brainwashed into becoming a child soldier. He fought for almost three years before his unit was forced to surrender him and other boys to UNICEF. In 1997, he left Freetown due to the conflict going on there and moved to New York City. In New York, Beah went to high school and college. He graduated with a degree in political science. In 2007 he publish A Long Way Gone, and he published his first novel in January 2014.