Lit Circle Reflection-A Long Way Gone (Memoirs of a Boy Soldier)

The book i am currently reading is called A Long Way Gone. I currently am enjoying the book because of how old the kid is and the type of things that he does. Something that stood out for me was that the kid was brave. Something that surprised me was the book is actually a memoir, and the book is about the life of the author. A question i'd like to ask the author is how long did it take to write his book. The book is like a connection to real life because it's harsh the way he is living and it was probably worse back then in the old days.