What would you do if you had to fight a war you don't understand? How would you feel if you lost your family, your friends and your home? How would you recover from the horrors you lived through and committed? These are some of the questions Ishmael Beah asks in his moving and courageous memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

In this book, Beah tells the story of himself as a child soldier during the Sierra Leone civil war in the 1990s. At just twelve years old, Beah flees his village when it is attacked by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels. ). He wanders the violence-torn country until he is recruited into the government army, who turns him into a drugged and trained assassin. At thirteen years old, Beah is capable of committing terrible acts without remorse. Three years later, UNICEF rescues him from the army and takes him to a rehabilitation program that helps him recover his humanity and find his uncle, who adopts him. After returning to civilian life, Beah begins to travel the United States telling his story.

A Long Way Gone is a moving and honest account of the war experience through the eyes of a child soldier. Beah shows us how war can corrupt and destroy innocence, but also how hope and forgiveness can be found in the midst of chaos. His book is a testimony to the strength of the human spirit and a denunciation of the situation of the more than 300,000 child soldiers in the world. A Long Way Gone is a work that will not leave you indifferent and that will make you reflect on the value of life, peace and dignity.