From the Bookshelf of Bookmarks Subscribers …

A book about child soldiers killing others during wartime is bound to have a powerful effect. Whether A Long Way Gone is moving in a fulfilling way, given the rescue of the author by the UN, or appalling in its cruelty will depend on the individual reader. The graphic violence will bother some readers, and remorse is not Ishmael Beah's strong suit. But the miracle remains: a teenager can be plucked from such an awful existence, transported to another nation, obtain a college degree, give literar

A book about child soldiers killing others during wartime is bound to have a powerful effect. Whether A Long Way Gone is moving in a fulfilling way, given the rescue of the author by the UN, or appalling in its cruelty will depend on the individual reader. The graphic violence will bother some readers, and remorse is not Ishmael Beah's strong suit. But the miracle remains: a teenager can be plucked from such an awful existence, transported to another nation, obtain a college degree, give literary voice to his horrific experiences__and teach us all something about humanity. That lesson is both light and dark, for as Carolyn See concludes, the book "says something about human nature that we try, most of the time, to ignore. Humans can be murderous, and that doesn't pertain in any way to religion or politics or ideology."

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.