The first-person account of a 26-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy. My new friends have begun to suspect that I havent 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 & shooting each other?" " Yes all the time." " Cool." I smile a little. " You should tell us about it sometime." " Yes sometime." This is how wars are fought now: by children hopped-up on drugs & wielding AK-47s. There are more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide & it is estimated there are some 300 000 child soldiers fighting. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What 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 & 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 & survived. Ishmael Beah now twenty-five years old tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve in Sierra Leone he fled attacking rebels & wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen hed been picked up by the government army & Beah at heart a gentle boy found he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare & mesmerizing account told with real literary force & heartbreaking honesty."