Bloomsbury Home
Refugee Boy
Refugee Boy
Enjoy 30% off all our Education books to celebrate going back to school!
- Delivery and returns info
-
Free UK delivery on orders £30 or over
Inspection copy added to basket
This title is available for inspection copy requests
Choose your preferred format. EU customers: we regret we cannot currently supply print inspection copies via the website but ebooks are available.
Please note ebook inspection copies are fulfilled by VitalSource™.
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Description
An eye for an eye. It's very simple. You choose your homeland like a hyena picking and choosing where he steals his next meal from. Scavenger. Yes you grovel to the feet of Mengistu and when his people spit at you and kick you from the bowl you scuttle across the border. Scavenger.
As a violent civil war rages back home in Ethiopia, teenager Alem and his father are in a bed and breakfast in Berkshire. It's his best holiday ever. The next morning his father is gone and has left a note explaining that he and his mother want to protect Alem from the war. This strange grey country of England is now his home.
On his own, and in the hands of the social services and the Refugee Council, Alem lives from letter to letter, waiting to hear something from his father. Then he meets car-obsessed Mustapha, the lovely 'out-of-your-league' Ruth and dangerous Sweeney – three unexpected allies who spur him on in his fight to be seen as more than just the Refugee Boy.
Lemn Sissay's remarkable stage adaptation of Benjamin Zephaniah's bestselling novel is published here in the Methuen Drama Student Edition series, featuring commentary & notes by Professor Lynette Goddard (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) that help the student unpack the play's themes, language, structure and production history to date.
Table of Contents
CONTEXT & THEMES
Cultural and Theatrical Contexts
Themes
Dramatic Devices
Performance History
Trends in Scholarly and Popular Debate
ADDITIONAL READING
REFUGEE BOY
NOTES
Product details

Published | 27 Jan 2022 |
---|---|
Format | Paperback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 104 |
ISBN | 9781350171916 |
Imprint | Methuen Drama |
Dimensions | 198 x 129 mm |
Series | Student Editions |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
Fine and humane ... Sissay weaves in poetry, laughter [and] moments of awe
The Times
-
The playful, obstinate and courageously humorous tone of Zephaniah's writing shines through ... Hilarious and later heartbreaking.
Guardian
-
The content of the play speaks directly to contemporary issues around immigration and asylum, the plight of refugees fleeing warfare, the traumatic legal process of applying for asylum, the contribution of refugees to life in Britain, and the treatment of children in the judicial/asylum process ... Lynette Goddard is the leading UK scholar on Black British theatre and performance. She has published widely in this field and is expertly placed to write the introduction for Refugee Boy.
Chris Megson, Reader in Drama, Royal Holloway, University of London
-
The text is likely to be a welcome addition to Edexcel's set text list
Jenny Stevens, author and series editor