A powerful and affecting novel of Africa's child-soldiers, by French Africa's pre-eminent novelist.
Birahima is ten years old. He lives in the Ivory Coast. He is a soldier. In Ahmadou Kourouma's extraordinary novel, Birahima tells his story.
At the age of ten his mother dies and Birahima leaves his native village, accompanied by the sorcerer/crook Yacouba, to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by a rebel force and press-ganged into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, minimal rations of food, a small supply of dope and a tiny...