A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

I frequently go to a local Starbucks to study. I'm always curious of the latest book they are trying to sell there. It interest me because there's usually only one title displayed. I saw this book, A Long Way Gone. The picture on the front caught my attention and I read the back leaflet while waiting on my Venti Drip. I didn't get the book, concluding that I had too many spiritual things to read right now.

Later on, I saw on CNN (I think?) an interview with the author, Ishmael Beah. He was an impressive young man, well spoken and compelling to listen to. He spoke of some of the horrors of war and how he had become a boy soldier in Sierra Leone during the civil war of the 90's. He spoke of his cold blooded past and how he has been rehabilitated.

I picked up the book last week and just finished it tonight. Wow. It is very good. You feel the horrors of war as you read his accounts. The pain of war and loss jumps off the page.

The book is not written from a Christian perspective. As I read, I was reminded that there is a sinful, sin sick world out there that desperately needs Christ. Apart from the grace of God, we would all be shooting each other and blowing one another apart. This fallen world longs for full redemption that will happen one day.