Refugee Boy (Student Editions) Paperback ? January 27, 2022

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.

Lemn Sissay is author of five books of poetry and has appeared in many anthologies. He reads poetry on stages throughout the world. He is an honorary Doctor of Letters and was awarded the 2010 travelling award scholarship from the Society of Authors. His play Something Dark, directed by John McGrath, was the winner of a Race in the Media Award (RIMA). Internal Flight is a television documentary about his life in care and subsequent journey to Ethiopia where he found his family, made by the BBC.

Sissay is associate artist at Southbank Centre, Europe's largest arts complex. Sissay curated the world's first Literature Festival of the Sea. His Landmark Poems are displayed on the walls and streets of Manchester and London. In London they adorn the Royal Festival Hall; “Gilt of Cain”, commissioned by City of London was erected near Fenchurch Street Station and was unveiled by Bishop Desmond Tutu. He was the first poet to write for the London Olympics 2012 and his poem “Spark Catchers” remains onsite today. Lemn is patron of the Reader Organisation and the Letterbox Club. He is education ambassador for the Arvon Foundation and Trustee of World Book Night. All details can be found at http://www.lemnsissay.com