As if the Cassie Edwards’ copying scandal hasn’t demoralized your faith in the publishing industry enough, Ishmael Beah’s bestselling memoir, A Long Way Gone, is the subject of two investigative pieces by The Australian. The first article was published on January 19, 2008, and tells the story about a couple who were keenly interested in Beah’s story.
They engaged in some research and thought that they might have uncovered Beah’s father. This discovery led to a revelation crucial to the timeline of Beah’s memoir.
Beah writes on the second page of his story: “The first time that I was touched by war I was 12. It was in January 1993.”
But the event he goes on to describe did not occur until January 1995.
The date difference is important since it mean that Beah might have only spent a couple of months in the army and not the years the memoirs describe. The article is not an indictment of Beah’s story but rather the oversight that the publisher took in fact checking the book. Perhaps this would be a non story if not for the Frey hoax but the reporters of The Australian note that …
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