a long way gone

Ishmael Beah. AK-47-toting 13 year old in Sierra Leone in the 90s. Now American college graduate and campaigner for human rights. Some courage, to relive those moments and portray them with such brutal honesty. Talk about facing your demons. There is hope for the world, if someone can come through a childhood like that with some part of their soul intact.

One of my favourite bits:

It was nighttime and we sat by the fire stretching our arms towards the flames as we listened to stories and watched the moon and the stars retire. Pa Sesay... cleared his throat and began:
"There was a hunter who went into the bush to kill a monkey. He had looked for only a few minutes when he saw a monkey sitting comfortably in the branch of a low tree. When he was close enough and behind a tree, he raised his rifle and aimed. Just when he was about to pull the trigger, the monkey spoke: 'If you shoot me, your mother will die, and if you don't, your father will die.' The monkey resumed its position, chewing its food, and every so often scratched its head or the side of its belly. "What would you do if you were the hunter?"
When I was seven I had an answer to this question that made sense to me. I never discussed it with anyone, though, for fear of how my mother would feel. I concluded to myself that if I were the hunter, I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the chance to put other hunters in the same predicament.