Ishmael Beah

There may be more than 300,000 child soldiers, drugged-up and wielding AK-47s, fighting in over fifty conflicts globally. Ishmael Beah was one of them. He’s one of the first to speak about the tragic experience in his own words. For the last six years, Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone has been a fixture on the New York Times Bestsellers List. At age twelve, Beah fled attacking rebels and wandered a land destroyed by violence. By thirteen, he was picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found he was capable of truly horrific acts. Eventually escaping and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. Beah’s shares his harrowing story and opens audiences’ eyes to a journey of redemption, hope and what it means to be human!