Pigeon English

Product Information

Personally, while I tend to prefer plot-driven fiction, I can live with minimal or no plot if there is something to connect with. And in this book, 11-year-old Harrison (aka "Harri") Opoku is such a lovable, naive, child that I couldn't help but connect with his irrepressible spirit. Like Harri, moved from Africa to an alien first-world country at around age 10-11, and found it to be a similarly bewildering and hostile place. Others may find Harri to be too precious or unbelievably innocent, but I fell for him hook, line, and sinker. And to be fair, the book is not entirely plotless, there is a murder mystery to propel things, along with a minor romantic subplot. The title Pigeon English immediately emphasizes that the novel is concerned with questions of linguistic and cultural hybridity. The word “pidgin” refers to a hybrid language developed so people who speak different languages can communicate with one another—usually in a colonial context. Pidgin English, therefore, refers to languages that hybridize English with another language. The title of this book, Pigeon English, is a play on words, echoing Harri’s idiosyncratic use of language, as he mixes British English with Ghanaian slang and Pidgin English (and, of course, the title also gestures to Harri’s love of pigeons). Harri makes an effort to assimilate into London culture by studying and imitating the ways in which English is spoken in London. However, considering that London, its customs, and its slang are constituted by different multiethnic factions, Harri adds to the culture rather than assimilating into it. Lydia’s friend Miquita comes over and claims that it was the dead boy’s own fault for getting killed because he shouldn’t have been “fronting.” Harri tells her that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Later, Harri asks his friend Dean if he thinks Miquita is right. Simultaneously accurate and fantastical, this boy's love letter to the world made me laugh and tremble all the way through. Pigeon English is a triumph'

It means me and Poppy belong together. That's what the top letters stand for: P.M. is for Poppy Morgan and H.O. is for Harrison Opoku. When you put + between them it means those two people go together like a sum. That's what Poppy told me. Lydia is Harri's older sister in Year 9. A member of Dance Club, Lydia befriends Miquita and Chanelle and enjoys normal adolescent behaviors, like gossiping and watching television dramas. After the murder, Lydia is conscripted to destroy evidence and is threatened by Miquita. Despite her fear of the Dell Farm Crew's retribution, Lydia protects Harri as best she can, despite being a child herself. Mamma

About Stephen Kelman

Hari je izbeglica iz Gane koji je utočište, sa majkom i starijom sestrom našao u getu Londona. Kada dečaka kojeg on i njegovi drugari znaju iz prolaza pronalaze ubijenog, dečaci odlučuju da sami sprovedu istragu.

Pigeon English is the debut novel by English author Stephen Kelman. It is told from the point of view of Harrison Opoku, an eleven-year-old Ghanaian immigrant living on a tough London estate. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2011. Chanelle and Miquita get into a fight at school one day. Right as Miquita is about to push Chanelle through the window, teachers come over and break up the fight. Harri notices that Killa displays several “signs of guilt,” and Harri begins to believe that Killa murdered the dead boy with Miquita. Harri and Dean grab Killa’s hands and take his fingerprints with sellotape. When Agnes gets a fever, Harri is again confronted with his own mortality. Though he is an innocent child, Harri has seen his fair share of untimely deaths. This quotation, which marks Harri's realization that he could actually be in danger, foreshadows Harri's eventual murder.I was still very scared. Anybody can die, even a baby. They die every day. The dead boy never hurt anybody and he got chooked to death. I saw the blood. His blood. If it can happen to him it can happen to anybody. Harri, June