Lying in front of Harrison Opoku is a body. It is the body of one of his classmates, a boy known for his incredible basketball skills, who seems to have been murdered for his dinner.
Armed with a pair of camouflage binoculars and techniques absorbed from television shows like CSI, Harri and his best friend, Dean, plot to bring the perpetrator to justice. They gather evidence-fingerprints lifted with tape, a wallet stained with blood-and lay traps to flush out the killer. But nothing can prepare them for what happens when a criminal feels you closing in.
Recently emigrated from Ghana with his sister and mother to South London's enormous housing projects, Harri is obsessed with gummy candy, friendly to the pigeon who visits his balcony, is quite possibly the fastest runner in his school, and is clearly also fast on the trail of a murderer.
"Continually surprising and endearing ... There's a sweetness here that's irresistible."
The Washington Post
"Pigeon English is a book to fall in love with: a funny book, a true book, a shattering book... . If you loved Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time or Emma Donoghue's Man Booker-shortlisted Room, you'll love this book too."
The Times (London)
"Convincingly evokes life on the edge... The humour, the resilience, the sheer ebullience of its narrator-a hero for our times-should ensure the book becomes, deservedly, a classic."
