{"product_id":"a-long-way-gone-by-ishmael-beah-9780007247097","title":"A Long Way Gone","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first-person account of a 26-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“My new friends have begun to suspect that I haven't told them the full story of my life. ‘Why did you leave Sierra Leone?’ ‘Because there is a war.’ ‘You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?’ ‘Yes, all the time.’ ‘Cool.’ I smile a little. ‘You should tell us about it sometime.’ ‘Yes, sometime.’”\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. There are more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide and it is estimated there are some 300,000 child soldiers fighting. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIshmael Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve in Sierra Leone, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognisable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found he was capable of truly terrible acts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a rare and mesmerising account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46499925819628,"sku":"9780007247097","price":25.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15390873482190.jpg?v=1748567119","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/products\/a-long-way-gone-by-ishmael-beah-9780007247097","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}