Song for Night

Part Inferno and part Paradise Lost, Song for Night is the story of a West African boy soldier's lyrical, terrifying, yet beautiful journey through the nightmare landscape of a brutal war in search of his lost platoon. The reader is led by the voiceless protagonist who, as part of a landmine-clearing platoon, had his vocal chords cut - a move to keep these children from screaming when blown up, and thereby distracting the other minesweepers. The book is written in a ghostly voice, with each chapter headed by a line of the unique sign language these children have invented. The book is unlike anything else ever written about an African war.