WINNER OF THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD YOUNG NOVELIST'S AWARD

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE, THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE AND NEW SOUTH WALES' PREMIER LITERARY AWARDS

On the day that Obinna’s village is savagely attacked by the rebel army and his father murdered, he witnesses violence beyond his imagination. Along with his older brother he finds himself thrown into a truck when the soldiers leave, to be shaped into an agent of horror – a child soldier. Marched through minefields and forced into battle, enduring a brutal daily existence, Obinna slowly works out which parts of himself to save and which to sacrifice in this world turned upside down.