Refugee Boy

Selected for The Pleasure List 2026 - Hay Festival's crowd-sourced list of the 39 most unputdownable books ever

"Playful, obstinate and courageously humorous ... hilarious and later heartbreaking" — Guardian

"Sweet, funny, highly inventive" — Yorkshire Post

The poignant but funny tale of a young refugee now marking its 25th anniversary

Acclaimed performance poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah's honest, wry and poignant story of a young refugee left in London is of even more power and pertinence today than when it was first published.

Life is not safe for Alem. His father is Ethiopian, his mother Eritrean. Their countries are at war, and Alem is welcome in neither place.

So Alem is excited to spend a holiday in London with his father – until he wakes up to find him gone. What seems like a betrayal is in fact an act of love, but now Alem is alone in a strange country, and he must forge his own path...

Very accessible and easy to read; perfect for reading for pleasure and classroom discussion.

Brilliantly written and with a real ear for dialogue, fans of Angie Thomas and Malorie Blackman will love Benjamin Zephaniah's novels for young adult readers:

Refugee Boy Face Gangsta Rap Teacher's Dead