A short summary

A home in Eritrea

“As the family lay sleeping, soldiers kicked down the door of the house and entered, waving their rifles around erratically and shouting at the top of their voices”.

A home in Ethiopia

“As the family lay sleeping, soldiers kicked down the door of the house and entered, waving their rifles around erratically and shouting at the top of their voices”.

These are parts of the book that show the reader Alem and his parents´ situation.

Alem´s father is Ethiopian and Alem´s mother is Eritrean. Eritreans do not want any Ethiopians in their country and Ethiopians do not want the Eritreans in their country. Therefore a problem occurs.

The book is about Alem and his life as a refugee in the UK.

Suddenly one day Alem´s father takes his son on a holiday to the UK. During Alem and his father´s time together Alem feels good, but overnight the father is gone. It turned out that Alem's father had gone back to Alem´s mom in Africa. With no money and no home, Alem 14 years old, is alone in a whole new world.

In the book you get to follow Alem´s life as a refugee in the UK. The author Benjamin Zephaniah tells you how Alem gets connected to the refugee committee, lives in a foster home, adjusts to school in London, and deals with the legal system which assesses Alem's right to asylum in the UK.