Radiance of Tomorrow by Ishmael Beah | Book Review

Years after the end of the war, the people of Imperi trickle back home using the many winding, snake-like paths leading to their village. The first arrivals return to find a deserted village strewn with lots of human bones. It's the bones of those who couldn't escape quickly enough on the afternoon that the faraway war finally came to Imperi. Among the arrivals are the elderly, the young, amputees, the people who amputated the amputees, and victims of rape carrying babies. They all hope to reunite with their loved ones and as they come into town they search for familiar faces. The war has left everyone feeling vulnerable and distrustful and they're cautious about getting attached to the new normal because they fear things could change at any time. So as they work hard to rebuild their lives they keep an eye out for plundering enemies from the outside, completely blind to the monsters amongst them who would turn against them in exchange for the most basic of comforts. Change comes to Imperi but it's not the kind they anticipated or the sort of change they desire.

I approached this novel warily when I found out it was another war story because I was worried it might be a rehash of sorts. However, I picked it up because Ishmael Beah's firsthand account of war in his debut novel A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier was incredibly moving and very memorable. In Radiance of Tomorrow, the combination of the plotline and the narrative angle left me deeply dissatisfied. If A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a ten on a scale of one to ten then Radiance of Tomorrow is a three. Radiance of Tomorrow is a fairly interesting novel but very, very, very putdownable.

READ: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah - My Thoughts

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