Fourteen-year-old Alem Kelo, the "refugee boy" of this dignified, compassionate and occasionally angry novel, has come to England from the country some call Eritrea, some Ethiopia. In his new environment, his life soon becomes, in his own words, "a roller-coaster going from one extreme to the other." There are sordid temporary lodgings to be endured and family tragedies to be faced; there are also his successes - academic and social - at school and the warmth of the reception given him by his foster family. Out of these "extremes" Alem emeges as someone who, while having no desire to forget his past, is determined to be totally positive about the future which his changed circumstances seem to promise. It is an outlook to which Zephaniah's plain, matter-of-fact style lends considerable credibility.