Beneath the Darkening Sky book by Majok Tulba

When Obinna's village is attacked by the rebel army, he witnesses violence beyond the capacity of his imagination and comprehension, including the murder of his father. Along with his older brother, Obinna is taken along with the army when they leave, to be shaped into an agent of this horror - to become a child soldier. Marched through minefields and thrown into battlefields, enduring daily existence in camp with a man called Priest and a woman called Christmas, Obinna slowly works out which parts of himself to save and which to sacrifice in this world turned upside down. Beneath the Darkening Sky is a terrifyingly powerful, brilliantly insightful portrait of how a human being copes with being forced to become inhuman. Unflinchingly, it shows us not just what can happen in our world, but how it can happen. Like all great fiction, it imagines the unimaginable, and announces the arrival of an important new Australian voice. Published By Penguin Group Australia on 2012