English pigeon

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Prize

"Pigeon English is a book that will make you fall in love: funny, real, heartbreaking." The Times

"This boy's love letter to the world, both subtle and imaginative, had me laughing and trembling throughout. Eleven-year-old Harrison Opoku, the second-best runner in Year 7, runs into his new life in England in his custom trainers—Adidas stripes drawn with a marker—without fully realizing the very real threat around him. Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister Lydia, Harry absorbs many of the strange elements of city life, from the bewildering array of Haribo sweets to the creepy, yet wonderful, gang of older boys from his school. But his life changes forever when one of his friends is murdered. As the victim's nearly new football boots hang in tribute on a banister behind a fluorescent bar and a call to the police brings only silence, Harry decides to act, inadvertently jeopardizing the fragile net his mother has woven around her family to keep them safe. From autumn 2015, Stephen Kelman's wildly funny, poignant, and unforgettable novel will be a defining text of English-language literature. From AQA GCSE.