Shadows into Light
Theresa S. Betancourt
Harvard Univ., $35
For more than two decades, Theresa S. Betancourt has followed the lives of children (now adults) who returned home after being forced to fight in the civil war that ravaged Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002.
Thousands of children unwillingly participated in the violent conflict as soldiers, spies and laborers. Many took part in attacks on their own neighbors and relatives, many faced sexual violence, many witnessed unspeakable atrocities. In her new book, Betancourt, director of Boston College’s Research Program on Children and Adversity, shares what she has learned about the factors that have helped some of these people recover and
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