Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel

At the center of Radiance of Tomorrow are Benjamin and Bockarie, two longtime friends who return to their hometown, Imperi, after the civil war.

The village is in ruins, the ground covered in bones. As more villagers begin to come back, Benjamin and Bockarie try to forge a new community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but they’re beset by obstacles: a scarcity of food; a rash of murders, thievery, rape, and retaliation; and the depredations of a foreign mining company intent on sullying the town’s water supply and blocking its paths with electric wires. As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order, they’re forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future alike.

With the gentle lyricism of a dream and the moral clarity of a fable, Radiance of Tomorrow is a powerful novel about preserving what means the most to us, even in uncertain times.

“Beah has a resilient spirit and a lyrical style all his own.”
– The Washington Post

“There is an allegorical richness to Beah’s storytelling and a remarkable humanity to his characters.”
– The New York Times

“That prose style, so organic, so rich with metaphors of sky, wind, and night, adds enormous power to Beah’s already potent piece of fiction.”
– The Boston Globe

“Beah has produced a formidable and memorable novel—a story of resilience and survival, and, ultimately, rebirth.”
– Edwige Danticat for Publishers Weekly

“Beah writes lyrically and passionately about ugly realities as well as about the beauty and dignity of traditional ways.”
– Kirkus Reviews (starred reviews)

“In 2007, Beah woke us from our slumbers with A Long Way Gone . . . Here, in his first novel . . . our heroes (like Beah himself) stay radiant to the end.”
– Library Journal

“That kind of storytelling is brilliance, and Ishmael Beah shines.”
– Huffington Post Books