The Irish Times

Weekend Review
Christine Madden
8 July 2006

One of the most shocking elements of the wars and civil unrest in Africa is the use of child soldiers. Delia Jarrett-Macauley's moving - at times devastating - novel presents a fictional account of a young boy snared into traumatic violence and destruction. London resident Julia flies to Sierra Leone to aid her uncle Moses as he tries to come to terms with what his grandson Citizen (interestingly symbolic name) has perpetrated as a member of a battalion of young soldiers. Forced into service via unspeakable violence and terror, they in turn commit incomprehensible acts of brutality, one of which has splintered the foundations of Moses and Citizen's family. In descriptive, sensual language, the novel charts an odyssey of destruction and horror, but also of eventual redemption and illustrates what can be accomplished by people who have the necessary courage, love and hope.

<< back to press