A haunting, beautiful first novel by the bestselling author of A
Long Way Gone.
Named one of the Christian Science Monitor's best fiction books of
2014
With the gentle lyricism of a dream and the moral clarity of a fable,
Radiance of Tomorrow is a powerful novel about preserving what means
the most to us, even in uncertain times.
When Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone was published in 2007, it soared
to the top of bestseller lists, becoming an instant classic: a harrowing
account of Sierra Leone's civil war and the fate of child soldiers that
everyone in the world should read (The Washington Post). Now Beah,
whom Dave Eggers has called arguably the most read African writer in
contemporary literature, has returned with his first novel, an
affecting, tender parable about postwar life in Sierra Leone.
At the center of Radiance of Tomorrow are Benjamin and Bockarie, two
longtime friends who return to their hometown, Imperi, after the civil
war. The village is in ruins, the ground covered in bones. As more
villagers begin to come back, Benjamin and Bockarie try to forge a new
community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but they're beset
by obstacles: a scarcity of food; a rash of murders, thievery, rape, and
retaliation; and the depredations of a foreign mining company intent on
sullying the town's water supply and blocking its paths with electric
wires. As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order,
they're forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future
alike.
