Will I love Refugee Boy?

I read this at a time when I was trying to understand my own place in the world, and it resonated in a quiet but powerful way.

What I appreciate about this book is how it captures the confusion and uncertainty of being young and displaced without losing hope. It feels honest. It does not try to overexplain things, but it does not avoid the emotional reality either. That balance stayed with me.

In a world where the number of forcibly displaced people is rising faster and to the highest levels ever, I believe this beautifully written story of fourteen-year-old Alem is incredibly important. Thinking he’s on a short holiday to the UK with his father, Alem, who is an aspiring architect, happily soaks in the sights and sounds, making apt comparisons between London and the urban landscapes and architecture of Ethiopia. However, Alem is about to have his world turned upside down. The next day, his father abandons him in the UK in a desperate attempt to keep him safe from the… show more.