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.

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'Beneath the Darkening Sky is as heartbreaking as it is beautiful, giving us the story of a young boy who must fight to defend himself against conditions worse than any human--let alone a child--should ever be forced to endure. As a novel of resilience and identity, and of what lengths we are willing to go to survive, it is at once harrowing and haunting, shedding light on the continuing horrors of child soldiers.'

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‘Tightly plotted and cleverly structured, but its quality ultimately flows from its hero… it is the struggle to resist life as a hardened killer that gives the book its narrative force.’

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‘Majok Tulba’s novel is a red-raw story of an African child soldier. The violence is brutal and unrelenting, the writing unembellished and unsettling… Beneath the Darkening Sky makes for uncomfortable reading and is a book that will prick the conscience of western readers in their soft armchairs.’

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'Urgent and absorbing.'

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'A brilliant novel that will not be easily forgotten.'