Ahmadou Kourouma's final novel, Allah is not Obliged, - written for and dedicated to the children of Djibouti - is the tale of a child-soldier, Birahima, who, when his  mother dies, leaves his native village, accompanied by the marabout and con man  Yacouba, to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by a rebel force and press-ganged into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, minimal rations of food, a small supply of dope and a tiny wage. Fighting in a totally chaotic civil war, and alongside many other boys, some no older than he, Birahima sees death, torture, amputation and madness, but somehow manages to retain his own sanity…

Allah is not Obliged was shortlisted for the 2008 Florence Gould French/American Prize

Praise for Allah is not Obliged

A work of luminous humanity… powerful, terrible and frequently bitterly and blackly funny.

Michael Thompson-Noel  Financial Times

Allah is not Obliged is a powerful, shocking and deeply moving novel, an African Lord of the Flies...Through Kourouma's skilful telling, the characters live on the page

Aminatta Forna  Guardian

Melding fiction and fact with the humility of childhood, Ahmadou Kourouma deftly exposes the desperate nature of the civil wars - and the relentless poverty - that have ravaged Africa, and brings the grandeur of gestures such as the G8 pledges into uncomfortably sharp relief.

Sarak Birke  New Statesman