The New Yorker: In 1993, when the author was twelve, rebel forces attacked his home town, in Sierra Leone, and he was separated from his parents. For months, he straggled through the war-torn countryside, starving and terrified, until he was taken under the wing of a Shakespeare-spouting lieutenant in the government army. Soon, he was being fed amphetamines and trained to shoot an AK-47 (?Ignore the safety pin, they said, it will only slow you down?). Beah?s memoir documents his transformation from a child into a hardened, brutally efficient soldier who high-fived his fellow-recruits after they slaughtered their enemies?often boys their own age?and who ?felt no pity for anyone.? His honesty is exacting, and a testament to the ability of children ?to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.?