Stephen Kelman’s spellbinding portrayal of a boy balancing on the edge of manhood, and the forces around him that try to shape the way he falls.

Eleven-year-old Harrison Opoku lives in a block of flats on an inner-city estate. From his ninth floor balcony, Harri absorbs the strange elements of his new life in England: watching, listening, and learning the tricks of survival. When a boy is knifed to death and a police appeal for witnesses draws only silence, Harri decides to start an investigation of his own. In doing so, he unwittingly endangers the fragile web his mother has spun around her family to keep them safe.

Shortlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2011
Published by
Bloomsbury
Publication date
Stephen Kelman

Stephen Kelman

About the Author

Stephen Kelman's debut novel Pigeon English was shortlisted for the 2011 Booker Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Guardian First Book Award
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