Beasts of No Nation audiobook

Beasts of No Nation is destined to be regarded as a classic. Village life in this unnamed West African country is disrupted when news comes of war. People who can, flee. Some remain, men willing to fight mostly. Unfortunately this includes young boys who are strong enough to hold a weapon. Our narrator is one. He is a bright boy, an eager and exceptional student who loves his time at school. His father is either killed or driven off and the boy is terrified into joining the roving militia that comes through raping and killing.From the film His tale is a very intimate portrait of life in this band of cruel leaders and lost boys. He loses innocence in many different ways, none by his own volition. It is a very hard-hitting picture, told in a child’s tongue. I have seen no other attempt to portray the horror of such military life as told by one of the young people who make up so much of the fighting forces in Africa. It is enough to summon tears. I was reminded of Call it Sleep, another classic of a hard life seen through the eyes of a child. I expect this novel will join that in the shelves of ageless literature. The author - from Australian BroadcastingThe novel has been made into a film by Netflix, with streaming and theatrical opening occurring simultaneously, October 16, 2015=============================EXTRA STUFFAudio interview with the author - from KCRWThe author reads from the novel, in Key WestA Wall Street Journal article on the opening of the film-----6/21/2017 - a grim, moving real-life story of survival in hell - Trained to Kill: How Four Boy Soldiers Survived Boko Haram - by Sarah A. Topol - NY Times Magazine

when you read a lot, you build up a barrier over time without trying. it's hard for me to have an intense emotional response to any book.not this time!i think there's worthy criticism about a lot about this book, including and maybe especially the decision to use broken english as the narrative voice, but i can't not give this book a solid rating because it broke me down.bottom line: immersive and horrific.--------------tbr reviewmy short book addiction is getting out of hand

Try not to read this when you are feeling down, when it’s dark and you’re alone as this is an almost relentless novel of the horrors of war for civilians and soldiers, but, most importantly, for those child soldiers who never intended or wanted to be part of the war. In an unnamed African nation, Agu, the narrator is captured by a guerilla army and given the choice to kill or be killed, a choice that he has to contend with every single day. It is never clear how old Agu is but it’s obvious he is a child soldier, one of those who in Somalia and other nations, become part of such armies. Given rifles and machetes and drugs that make them feel invincible, the book is a fictional but powerful insight into the minds and actions of these children. Initially Agu is proud of being a soldier and speaks of avenging and finding his family but this soon turns to despair as he is trapped in a ring of moral and physical degradation that only gets tighter as the novel progresses. Occasionally there are interludes in the book where Agu talks about life pre-war, with his school friends and family and the life of his village. These respites were welcomed if short lived but despite the horror, this book is so absorbing because of the language.Agu’s voice is so distinct, so compelling, that his way of speaking in a kind of Pidgin English, seems utterly natural and readable, its simple innocence contrasting with everything that is happening around him. Pages fly by even as the horror grows. In the notes at the back of my edition, Uzodinma Iweala writes that he worked really hard on getting the voice right and that, “To me, Agu’s voice is as much a character as his person. I don’t know that this story could have been spoken in any other way”, something I wholeheartedly agree with.This is a short but important book and apparently Netflix have made it into a movie. I’m not sure I could face seeing this book translated to the screen but shall be looking for it in the future as I will writings from this extremely talented author. “If I am sun, I will be finding another place to be shining where people are not using my light to be doing terrible terrible thing.”

Incredibly brutal and heartbreaking, this is an important story of a child soldier. It isn't beautiful - it's horrific, but I wholeheartedly recommend it.

The last chapter kinda ruined my reading experience. It's the second time this has happened when it comes to this author's work (with Speak No Evil, it was Part 2 that sullied my "enjoyment.") This is an intense story of the lives of child soldiers, told through the eyes of the newest recruit. What I loved most was the language and voice. Even though you're reading about extreme violence and unflinching brutality, the prose is hypnotic and engulfs you in its rhythm.

And this is how it is starting God. When I’m closing my eyes, I am seeing the rainy season in my village. You can be finding the ground is washing away beneath your feet. Nothing is ever for sure. And everything is always changing. In response to the #OscarSoWhite debate, Dame Helen Mirren said, “One of the reasons it went that way – Idris Elba absolutely would have been nominated for an Oscar. He wasn’t because not enough people saw, or wanted to see, a film about child soldiers.” That intrigued me, and when I saw that she was talking about the film based on the book Beasts of No Nation, and when I then remembered that that particular slim volume was unread on my bookshelf, I eagerly cracked it open in order to better understand the conversation. Now, with a 142 page book in hand and the film streaming on Netflix, it was easily possible to both read the book and watch the movie on the same afternoon, which I did, and I'm writing equally about book and film in this opening paragraph to make this urgent point: While the film is really very good, if you only watch the film, you haven't experienced the book: read this book!Told from the point-of-view of a little boy of unknown age from an unnamed West African country, Beasts of No Nation begins as Agu is discovered in hiding and brought before the Commandant of a rebel squad. His backstory will eventually be filled in by flashbacks – Agu is the bright son of a schoolteacher father and a loving mother, his childhood enriched by both Christianity and traditional animism, his family scattered as his village was invaded by militia – but in the beginning, he is just a sick and scared little boy, given the choice to fight or die. What makes this book so fascinating is Agu's distinctive voice: The boy who is hitting me is running to the first truck. When he is reaching the door, he is bending down with his back so straight and his leg so straight. Only his head is moving back and forward, left and right, on his neck. Then he is standing up and suddenly, quick just like that, the door of the truck is swinging open and hitting the boy right in his big belly and he is just taking off like bird, flying in the air, and landing on his buttom in hole of water in the road. There is sound coming from all the other soldier. It is laughing sound. Not only does Agu employ idiosyncratic phrasing that marks his voice as vaguely foreign to the Western reader, but his observations remain naive and non-introspective throughout: no matter the horrors that Agu witnesses or participates in, his voice is always that of a little boy; one who eventually becomes numb; his tone unchanged whether marching in the rain or hacking at someone with a machete. And this is where the book differs from the film: On the screen, the remarkable Idris Elba as the Commandant is given military objectives in order to provide a plot, but on the page, none of that matters – Agu doesn't understand the politics that led to the civil war, so we don't learn about it; he's a pawn who does what he's told, at first from fear and then from habit, and the reader watches in horror as a little boy's humanity is all but erased.I was crying as I closed this book, and when the film opened with a carefree Agu getting into mischief with his village friends, the tears continued streaming down my face: the character had become a part of me and I wept for the future I knew was coming for him. Perhaps it's true that no one wants to see a film – or read a book – about child soldiers, but this felt like a powerful act of witnessing and valuable (in different ways) on both the page and the screen.

This short book took a long time to read, my heart and mind could only handle short doses of the content - well-written, the horror of war is all too tangible.

first of all it is the best book I 've read this year so far !!! and certainly will be on my all time recommended books list ..that was said now back to my review :)beasts of no nation is totally and shockingly alive read from the very beginning where Agu the main character and narrator of the novel becomes your AVATAR with a poetic and natural unilateral voice you experience a breathtaking extreme violence and slaughter beyond your imagination yet it s happening each day in real life around you !!! the horrific emotional force of narration contains your sympathy and affection for Agu even if he is acting out the worse atrocities in the world you rush to forgive him .very impressive of Iweala how he combined the innocence and violence in his character. a distinguished writing style with original expressions . the use of present tense and africanised English made Agu so real !!!!it was a heartache read , I cried many times while reading ...in a world where we became somehow accustomed to violence here beasts of no nation comes to make sure that no violence would be tolerant in any kind and we should always be connected to our humanity no matter what .... no for war and certainly no for child soldiers !!!!insights from the book :" so we were playing all this game then and thinking that to be a soldier was to be the best thing in the world because gun is looking so powerful and the men in the movie are looking so powerful and strong when they are killing people, but I am knowing now that to be a soldier is only to be weak and not strong, and to have no food to eat and not to eat whatever you want, and also to have people making you do thing that you are not wanting to do and not to be doing whatever you are wanting which is what they are doing in movie. But I am only knowing this now because I am soldier now.So I am singing to myself,Soldier SoldierKill Kill Kill.That is how you live.That is how you die."" I am always hungry, so hungry that I am always dreaming of chicken and how I will be eating it, how I will be crunching its beak and eating even the feather. I am so hungry I can be eating wood if it's making me to hungry less, but it s only hurting my belly and making me to vomit and shit. I am so hungry I can be eating my skin small by small if it is not making me to bleed to death."Heal the world make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race

This is a book that punches. It is not a book for the faint hearted. It is savagely horrific, harrowingly heartbreaking, violently visceral and chillingly claustrophobic.With these terms, you might wonder why I rate it five stars. The answer is because it is a tale that needs to be told.My life is comfortable, yet, I complain about the stress of my fast paced job, the dust that gathers on the floors because I have little time to clean, the meals I eat out because I am too tired to cook, and the fact that there are too few hours and too much to do.Then, when reading Beasts of No Nation, bitter, cold water hits my face with the reality that I should stop whining and be grateful for my many blessings.Agu is a young boy uprooted, torn and thrown into a violent African civil war. His village is destroyed and his father is killed. His mother and sister were taken by a UN truck to a safer place, yet Agu never knows if they made it to safety.When Agu is beaten out of his hiding place, he has no choice but to join the cold, cruel, evil Commandant who leads a raggedy band of soldiers.The author vividly shows the underbelly and violence of civil war where the elusive enemy hacks and kills senselessly.

Agu's world is torn apart by war and after his father is killed, he is taken in by an intimidating Commander of guerilla fighters in the unnamed African country. The story is told from his POV - that of a child missing his old life and struggling with the brutalities he both experiences and commits. It is a powerfully emotional tale.

Horrible. Not the book, but the situation of child soldiers, of any soldiers. God bless their lifes and souls.

3.5Maybe I MIGHT be able to find the correct words to review this novel. If I do I will be back for a proper review. If not, just know that my emotions and thoughts are all over the place!