ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED; TRANS. BY FRANK WYNNE

the long version

Birahima is ten years old. He lives in the Ivory Coast. He is a soldier. 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 wage. Fighting in a totally chaotic civil war, and alongside many other boys, some no older than he, Birahima sees death, torture, amputation and madness, but somehow manages to retain his own sanity_Ahmadou Kourouma's masterpiece is powerful, terrible and frequently bitterly and blackly funny.