by Biyi Bandele (Author)
A few months ago fourteen-year-old Ali Banana was apprenticed to a whip-wielding blacksmith in his rural hometown. Now its winter 1944, the war is entering its most crucial stage and Ali is a private in Thunder Brigade. His unit has been given orders to go behind enemy lines and wreak havoc. But the Burmese jungle is a mud-riven, treacherous place, riddled with Japanese snipers, insanity and disease. Burma Boy is a horrific, vividly realised account of the madness, the sacrifice and the dark humour of the Second World War's most vicious battleground. It's also the moving story of a boy trying to live long enough to become a man.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 05 Jun 2008
ISBN 10: 0099488981
ISBN 13: 9780099488989
Book Overview: An intense, moving and funny tale of African soldiers in World War II, the first novel to bring narrative light to this neglected history.