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Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
Oct. 18th, 2011 10:41 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
Everybody says there’s a war but I haven’t seen it yet.
There’s a hell of wars going on all the time:
Wars
Kids vs Teachers, Northwell Manor High vs Leabridge High, Dell Farm Crew vs Lewsey Hill Crew, Emos vs Sunshine, Turkey vs Russia, Arsenal vs Chelsea, Black vs White, Police vs Kids, God vs Allah, Chicken Joe’s vs KFC, Cats vs Dogs, Aliens vs Predators.
I haven’t seen any of them. You’d know if there was a war because all the windows would be broken and the helicopters would have guns on them. The helicopters don’t even have guns, just torchlights. I don’t even think there’s a war. I haven’t seen it.
I don’t even know what side I’m on. Nobody’s told me yet.
Vs just means against.
Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister, eleven-year-old Harrison Opoku lives on the ninth floor of a block of flats on an inner-city housing estate. The second best runner in the whole of Year 7, Harri races through his new life in his personalised trainers – the Adidas stripes drawn on with marker pen blissfully unaware of the very real threat all around him.
With equal fascination for the local gang – the Dell Farm Crew – and for the pigeon who visits his balcony, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of life in England: watching, listening and learning the tricks of urban survival.
But when a boy is knifed to death on the high street and a police appeal for witnesses draws only silence, Harri decides to start a murder investigation of his own. In doing so, he unwittingly endangers the fragile web his mother has spun around her family to try to keep them safe.
A story of innocence and experience, hope and harsh reality, Pigeon English is a spellbinding portrayal of a boy balancing on the edge of manhood and of the forces around him that try to shape the way he falls.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Stephen Kelman’s debut novel is a touching, chilling, funny and desperately sad story of an innocent young boy in a brutal world. Although the sections narrated by a pigeon was too much of a literary device to work for me, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the novel and I think it deserves its place on the 2011 Booker short list.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
There’s a hell of wars going on all the time:
Wars
Kids vs Teachers, Northwell Manor High vs Leabridge High, Dell Farm Crew vs Lewsey Hill Crew, Emos vs Sunshine, Turkey vs Russia, Arsenal vs Chelsea, Black vs White, Police vs Kids, God vs Allah, Chicken Joe’s vs KFC, Cats vs Dogs, Aliens vs Predators.
I haven’t seen any of them. You’d know if there was a war because all the windows would be broken and the helicopters would have guns on them. The helicopters don’t even have guns, just torchlights. I don’t even think there’s a war. I haven’t seen it.
I don’t even know what side I’m on. Nobody’s told me yet.
Vs just means against.
Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister, eleven-year-old Harrison Opoku lives on the ninth floor of a block of flats on an inner-city housing estate. The second best runner in the whole of Year 7, Harri races through his new life in his personalised trainers – the Adidas stripes drawn on with marker pen blissfully unaware of the very real threat all around him.
With equal fascination for the local gang – the Dell Farm Crew – and for the pigeon who visits his balcony, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of life in England: watching, listening and learning the tricks of urban survival.
But when a boy is knifed to death on the high street and a police appeal for witnesses draws only silence, Harri decides to start a murder investigation of his own. In doing so, he unwittingly endangers the fragile web his mother has spun around her family to try to keep them safe.
A story of innocence and experience, hope and harsh reality, Pigeon English is a spellbinding portrayal of a boy balancing on the edge of manhood and of the forces around him that try to shape the way he falls.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Stephen Kelman’s debut novel is a touching, chilling, funny and desperately sad story of an innocent young boy in a brutal world. Although the sections narrated by a pigeon was too much of a literary device to work for me, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the novel and I think it deserves its place on the 2011 Booker short list.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
