One of the best books I´ve read so far!
A true and tragic story about a boy, born in Sierra Leone, whose childhood ended abruptly as the civil war reached his home. He lost his childhood, livelihood, family and friends...just all he once had. Since running away and surviving in the bush got difficult for a young boy, it´s only understandable that he found safety in the army, who provided shelter and food. All of a sudden he found himself being a boy soldier taking drugs, killing people, because that´s what he was told to do. After years on the front, he was rescued to experience rehabilitation and education which finally made him end up living in New York City. The end of the book seemed too sudden for me first, because it doesn´t tell how Beah´s life goes on in New York. But this way it made me research the internet for Beah, boy soldiers and children in war...what made me learn even more about it.

I´ve seen this book in the shelf so many times, read the back of it all so often, but often chose for another one, because reading about a child experiencing war with all it´s violence, madness and cruelty seemed alienating to me. But it also made me realize how little I knew about war and boy soldiers, and I was curious to learn more. So who else in the world could tell a boy soldier´s story more authentic than a former boy soldier itself.

I started reading and soon found myself caught in the awful world of Ishmael Beah and could barely stop until the last page. Beah is not reserved talking about the cruelty or taking drugs, he just tells it the way he experienced war...honest and frankly. The way he tells the story of the long way he had gone, the reader can almost picture the area, feeling like always running a step behind him, hiding, watching what happens. Sometimes the reader want´s to forget that it´s a child telling this awful story, because nobody would want a child to face all this violence and we can´t imagine or believe a child to experience war (we all know it happens, though) and act like an adult that young age only to survive. But all so often Ishmael Beah´s childlike thoughts remind us of his young age, in which his childhood stopped so abruptly.

This book really opened my eyes and heart and gave me a better understanding of children suffering from war, and war in general. I truly respect Ishmael Beah for sharing his story with the world so frankly. I will certainly recommend this book, while I believe the world needs to read it, because sometimes the Bad can change to the Good...