A young man searches for his platoon across a war-torn area of Nigeria The story begins with the child soldier My Luck waking from a mine blast that has killed one of his best friends in his platoon. Thinking that he was dead, the rest of his platoon left him lying in a field to die. While he is upset, My Luck decides that he must regroup with them. While he is searching for his fellow soldiers, My Luck peruses his memory as he recalls the religious war that led to Nigeria becoming a battleground and both of his parents being killed. He encounters some of his fellow soldiers in a town that was supposedly bombed out a few years before, only to be turned away as they say that My Luck is not truly alive. As he flees for his life from the men who turn on the young Captain, he notices that he is always travelling towards a river, and that his cigarette pack never empties. Before he can draw a conclusion about this, he falls asleep and is haunted by the people that he has killed and a woman that he had raped at the behest of his former Captain, nicknamed John Wayne. At this point in the story My Luck tells the reader that he is unable to talk because he had his vocal cords cut out so that he could not scream if he was injured during battle. This leads the reader to conclude that he is an unreliable narrator because his supposed conversations had actually been one sided dialogue. Instead, My Luck communicates with a simple sign language as he travels through several other areas of Nigeria that were supposed to be damaged but now stand as lush and lively as ever. At the end of his journey, the narrator finally catches up to his platoon on the river, but they cannot hear him screaming and firing his weapon. Finally, having given up on the violence that had doomed his life, My Luck admits to being dead and finds his mother in the afterlife.
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Best part of story, including ending:
The vivid language and the author's description of events about the horrors committed by children.
Best scene in story:
The best scene in this book is where My Luck finally catches up to his platoon only to realize that they are not capable of hearing him. He tosses down his rifle, pistol, and machete, and is able to move on in life.
Opinion about the main character:
My Luck was a child soldier that did terrible things while the war was raging, however, he did spare a mother and then killed John Wayne, a man trying to turn the young soldiers into animals.
