如今的戰爭就是這樣：孩子們，吸食毒品，手持AK-47。孩子們成了備選的士兵。據估計，在全球五十多場衝突中，約有三十萬名童子軍。伊斯梅爾·比亞曾是其中之一。童子軍眼中的戰爭是什麼樣的？他們是如何成為殺手的？又該如何停止？記者們紛紛報道童子軍的遭遇，小說家們也費盡心思去描繪他們的生活。但迄今為止，還沒有一位經歷過這場地獄般苦難並最終倖存下來的人以第一人稱的視角講述這段經歷。在《漫漫長路》一書中，現年二十五歲的比亞講述了一個引人入勝的故事：十二歲時，他如何逃離叛軍的進攻，在一片被暴力摧殘得面目全非的土地上流浪。十三歲時，他被政府軍收留，原本溫柔的比亞發現自己竟然能夠做出極為可怕的事。這是一個罕見而令人著迷的敘述，以真正的文學力量和令人心碎的誠實講述。
This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. In "A Long Way Gone", Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.
