Refugee Boy

Benjamin Zephaniah

Having read it

★★★★☆

A book that doesn’t get wrapped up in extraneous plot or characterisation and just presents a fictional tale, inspired by reality, that shines a lot of light and honesty on an often hidden and simplified ‘us and them’ world view and can (and has) in its own way, despite the many issues faced, prove good deeds beget good outcomes; observant, compassionate and relevant, even more so today.

A good passage

Alem [the refugee boy] was humiliated by the process [for asylum]. As they drove deeper into London, Alem asked if he was now a criminal, to which Mariam replied, ‘The system is not fair. There is no one more innocent than you, but look at the way you’ve been treated.
Criminals are all over the world but the big difference between a dictatorship and a democracy is that in a democracy the criminals are voted in.’