My Life Is Art

July 1, 2023

Having served as a child soldier in South Sudan after witnessing atrocities against his family and community, Jal was rescued by an aid worker and became an international recording star and activist whose awards include the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent and the Desmond Tutu Reconciliation Award. Here he offers insight into overcoming trauma and embracing life. Prepub Alert.

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October 9, 2023
Activist and entrepreneur Jal (War Child) provides surprisingly potent guidance for living an intentional life in this astute combination of memoir and self-help guide. Jal grew up as a child soldier in South Sudan, where he was surrounded by violence and often went hungry. That he overcame these traumas to achieve stability as an adult lends weight to his advice on how readers can increase their “ability to think, plan, organize, strategize, be compassionate, love, and exhibit wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.” Jal organizes that advice around 11 “pillars,” including meditation, gratitude, and forgiveness. Despite the positive tone, Jal doesn’t gloss over the difficulties of his early life, explaining that even after leaving his home country to live in Kenya as a teen, he remained “a troubled young man with many issues”; the physical violence that had been endemic in his early years had been replaced by “a cold war” in his mind, which produced nightmares and suicidal thoughts. Jal’s journey away from the darkness makes for inspirational reading. Even self-help skeptics are likely to be stirred. Agent: James Wills, Watson, Little.

October 15, 2023
The author of War Child returns with a how-to book about healing. Throughout his childhood, Jal faced unbelievable trauma. After his mother died in the South Sudanese civil war, his father arranged for him to escape to Ethiopia, a country he reached after a grueling journey during which he witnessed the deaths of hundreds of his fellow refugees, including children his own age. When the Ethiopian school he was supposed to attend turned out to be nonexistent, he became a child soldier, and not only witnessed horrific murders but also was responsible for an unspecified number of deaths. An aid worker rescued Jal and found him passage to Kenya, where he found Christianity and developed a meditation practice that he credits with giving him a new lease on life. Now, Jal is a successful rapper, entrepreneur, and activist. The purpose of this book, he writes, is to explain how he overcame trauma and to provide others with the tools to live the type of fulfilling life he has crafted for himself, despite unbelievable trauma. Jal intertwines stories about his past with explanations of the "eleven pillars" that now form the foundations of his daily life. "Every human being who has moved on from a traumatic situation is miraculous," he writes. "Imagine someone who has experienced sexual violence, or a war child, still talking about peace and love." The author is clearly dedicated to sharing this miracle with whoever is able to listen. In the sections of the book that pivot around memoir, Jal is courageous, vulnerable, compassionate, and insightful. The advice sections, however, hover close to toxic positivity and often deviate into strange, disjointed musings that feel overly specific or outdated. Overall, though, Jal's energy and vitality renders the book a satisfying read. A former child soldier's bright yet uneven memoir-cum-manifesto about surviving trauma.

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