Shortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award, this is a novel The Times called ‘a book to fall in love with: a funny book, a true book, a shattering book’.
‘Simultaneously accurate and fantastical, this boy’s love letter to the world made me laugh and tremble all the way through. Pigeon English is a triumph’ Emma Donoghue, author of Room Eleven-year-old
The second best runner in Year 7, Harrison Opoku tears around his new life in England in trainers he’s personalised himself – Adidas stripes drawn on in marker pen – blissfully oblivious to the very real danger surrounding him. Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister Lydia, Harri takes in all the strange new elements of city life, from the bewildering array of Haribo sweets to the frightening, fascinating gang of older boys at his school. Everything changes when one of his friends is murdered. With the victim’s nearly new football boots left hanging in tribute on railings behind fluorescent tape, and a police appeal met only with silence, Harri decides to take matters into his own hands – unwittingly putting at risk the fragile web his mother has woven to keep her family safe.
Stephen Kelman’s deeply funny, moving, idiosyncratic and unforgettable novel became an AQA GCSE English Literature set text from Autumn 2015.
ISBN 13: 9781408866597
Author: Stephen Kelman
