UPDATE: There is a short article in Publisher's Weekly that Ishmael Beah's account is being disputed in Australia. Read the article here.

I watched the movie Blood Diamond recently and I wanted to learn more about the civil war in Sierra Leone. I remembered seeing Ishmael Beah on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show and downloaded A Long Way Gone from Audible.

This is a compelling but unpleasant story. It is made all the more horrible by being true. At 12 years old, Ishmael is a happy child. He and his friends discover rap music, memorize lyrics, and practice their dance moves. Ishmael’s father believed in education and wants his son to become a doctor. They know about the war from refugees that came through town but it seems far away.

One day Ishmael, his older brother, Junior, and some friends make an overnight trip to another town. While there, they learn that the war had come to their village. They try to make in home to find their family but it becomes obvious that it won’t be possible.

What happens next is the first of Ishmael’s battles, the battle for survival. He and his brother and friends keep traveling, for months, looking for refuge. During a rebel attack at one of their stops, Ishmael and Junior are separated and never see one another again. Ishmael and his friends spend months moving from village to village until they think they have found safety in a village with a large army detachment.

It is here that Ishmael’s second battle begins, his time as a child soldier. The army suffers serious losses and the men in the village are given a choice, to join the army or take their chances with the rebels. The rebels represent near certain death so Ishmael, now 13 years old, and his friends become soldiers. For two years, fueled on war movies, cocaine, marijuana, and amphetamines, Ishmael fights the rebels, even becoming a junior lieutenant, leading a squad of other child soldiers. He becomes a cold killer, capable of cutting a man’s throat with no emotion.

After two years, Ishmael’s third battle begins, rehabilitation. One day men from UNICEF arrive at camp and Ishmael is selected to leave with them. He doesn’t realize it at the time but his war is over and he is sent to a rehabilitation camp in Freetown. After many months he released to an uncle and begins a period of assimilation back into society. His troubles are not over though there are happy times.

He is selected to go to New York City on a U.N sponsored trip to highlight the problems of children in the world. There he meets a woman named Laura who will later become part of his life.

Eventually the war comes to Freetown. Fearing that he may be forced to become a soldier once again, Ishmael escapes to Guinea and eventually to the U.S. to begin a new life with a woman he considers his mother, Laura.

The events Ishmael witnessed and participated in are nearly impossible to grasp because of the total brutality and inhumanity. Even in war it is difficult to conceive that human beings could act that way to each other. Ishmael’s story brings home the reality that events in Rwanda, Kenya, Somalia, Dafur, and Sierra Leone are happening to real people, powerless to save themselves.

The narration is plain but well done, fitting for the story told. The print version of this book contains a map showing where Ishmael traveled as well as a timeline of the conflict in Sierra Leone.