Radiance of Tomorrow (Beah) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Written with the moral urgency of a parable and the searing precision of a firsthand account...There is an allegorical richness to Beah's storytelling and a remarkable humanity to his characters. We see tragedy arriving not through the big wallops of war, but rather in corrosive increments.
Sara Corbett - New York Times Book Review


[A] muted, emotionally nimble story of return and rebuilding.... Beah has a resilient spirit and a lyrical style all his own. Even as a multitude of wearying failures mounts, his characters retain their hopefulness in a way that’s challenging and inspiring: “We must live in radiance of tomorrow, as our ancestors have suggested in their tales,” Mama Kadie tells her neighbors. “For what is yet to come tomorrow has possibilities, and we must think of it.... That will be our strength. That has always been our strength.”
Ron Charles - Washington Post


A breathtaking and unselfpitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out.  It's a truly riveting memoir.
Time


Beah has written an actual novel—his first—not about the [Sierra Leon] war itself, but about its aftermath. What happens when those who have committed atrocities or have been the victims of them return to what is left of their homes?... [A] formidable and memorable novel—a story of resilience and survival, and, ultimately, rebirth. —Edwidge Danticat
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Beah, who broke our hearts with the haunting memoir of his life as a boy soldier (Long Way Gone), will render readers speechless with the radiance of his storytelling in this novel of grace, forgiveness, and a vision of a tomorrow without conflict.  —Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL
Library Journal


(Starred review.) This first novel from Sierra Leone–born author Beah features characters who face the challenges of returning to normalcy after the horrors of civil war in Sierra Leone. At times, it's hard to discern what predominates, the savagery of war and its aftermath or the promise of the book's title.... Beah writes lyrically and passionately about ugly realities as well as about the beauty and dignity of traditional ways.
Kirkus Reviews