52. 3 non fiction books on different subjects (1/3)

A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah

Ishmael Beah was a soldier in Sierra Leone - at just 12 years of age. This is his story, in his words, of how a child can loose his childhood.

When you forget that this is a true story, it's a good book. But then you remember that these things actually happened, in real life, to this boy, and to every other person he tells about in the book. It's shocking, for sure. It reminded me of the movie Blood Diamond, only this time it was real.

I remember at university in the Demography and Sample Surveys class, there was a table with the average life expectancy for different countries. A quick scan found that the lowest life expectancy was for males living in Sierra Leone. It was only in the 20's, a good 10 years lower than that of a female living in Sierra Leone. Our professor told us it was due to the civil war, and then we quickly moved on to learning equations...
Well, now I know how the life expectancy could be so short.