A Long Way Gone_ Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - Ishmael Beah [109]
My friends Melvin Jimenez, Matt Moore, Lauren Hyman, and Marielle Ramsay, thanks for your friendship, for keeping in touch, and for understanding that I needed time away from everyone to complete this work. To everyone who has opened their hearts or doors to me, thank you so very much.
Last, I am very grateful to Danièle Fogel for all your emotional support: your love, patience, and understanding during the writing of this book. Without your friendship and care, it would have been more difficult to embark on this journey, especially while at Oberlin College.
SARAH CRICHTON BOOKS
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2007 by Ishmael Beah
All rights reserved
Published in 2007 by Sarah Crichton Books / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint excerpts from the following previously published material:
“O.P.P.,” words and music by Vincent Brown, Keir Gist, and Anthony Criss (interpolates elements of “ABC,” by Deke Richards, Frederick Perren, Alphonso Mizell, and Berry Gordy, Jr.), copyright © 1991 by WB Music Corp., Naughty Music, and Jobette Music, Inc. All rights on behalf of itself and Naughty Music administered by WB Music Corp. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Beah, Ishmael, 1980–
A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier / by Ishmael Beah.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“Sarah Crichton Books.”
ISBN: 978-0-374-10523-5
1. Beah, Ishmael, 1980–2. Sierra Leone—History—Civil War, 1991—Personal narratives. 3. Sierra Leone—History—Civil War, 1991—Participation, Juvenile—Biography. 4. Child soldiers—Sierra Leone—Biography. 5. Sierra Leone—Social conditions—1961– I. Title.
DT516.828.B43 A3 2007
966.404—dc22
[B]
2006017101
www.fsgbooks.com
*Sneakers.
*Single.
*Flip-flops.
*A respectful term placed before the first name of adults.
*A grated and dried food made from cassava.
*A place outside villages where people processed coffee or other crops.