Front cover image for Beasts of no nation : a novel

Beasts of no nation : a novel

Uzodinma Iweala (Author)
In this stunning debut novel, Agu, a young boy in an unnamed West African nation, is recruited into a unit of guerrilla fighters as civil war engulfs his country. Haunted by his father's own death at the hands of militants, which he fled just before witnessing, Agu is vulnerable to the dangerous yet paternal nature of his new commander. While the war rages on, Agu becomes increasingly divorced from the life he had known before the conflict started -- a life of school friends, church services, and time with his family still intact. As he vividly recalls these sunnier times, his daily reality spins further downward into inexplicable brutality, primal fear, and loss of selfhood. His relationship with his commander deepens even as it darkens, and his camaraderie with a fellow soldier lends a deceptive sense of normalcy to his experience. In a powerful, strikingly original voice that vividly captures Agu's youth and confusion, Uzodinma Iweala has produced a harrowing, deeply affecting novel. Both a searing take on coming-of-age and a vivid document of the dark face of war, Beasts of No Nation announces the arrival of an extraordinary new writer
Print Book, English, 2006
First Harper Perennial edition View all formats and editions
Harper Perennial, New York, 2006
War stories
xii, 142, 20 pages ; 18 cm
9780060798680, 9780060798673, 0060798688, 006079867X
71275635
Includes "P.S. insights, interviews & more" at end of book
Hardcover edition published in 2005 by HarperCollins
bvbr.bib-bvb.de Klappentext
bvbr.bib-bvb.de Klappentext