Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister, 11 year-old Harrison Opoku lives on the 9th floor of a block of flats on a London 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. A spellbinding portrayal, nominated for the Booker Prize and First Book Award, of a boy balancing on the edge of manhood and of the forces around him that try to shape the way he falls.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2011 Deeply funny, moving, idiosyncratic and unforgettable, Pigeon English introduces a major new literary talent