37 pages 1 hour read

Stephen Kelman

Pigeon English

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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AprilChapter Summaries & Analyses

Summary: “April”

While they are in the launderette together with their Mamma, Lydia and Harri play a game where they have to call out which items of clothing they see passing by in the washers and dryers, with the rarer articles earning more points. They have to be mindful about being openly amused by the crude graffiti on the machines, since their mother would make them go use a different machine if she knew.

The narrative shifts quickly, since it is largely following Harri’s stream of consciousness. He speaks about his friend in the apartment complex, Altaf, a Somalian boy. Altaf is a quiet boy who likes superheroes and enjoys discussing super powers, inventions, and sharing his drawings with Harri, which Harri describes as "bo-styles" a term he uses whenever he finds something to be especially cool. 

The local news continues to bring up the story of the dead boy and the unsolved identity of his killer. Meanwhile, the Dell Farm Crew tries to take Harri to task, to see if he has the mettle to be part of the gang. They want him to break the glass of the school fire alarm in the middle of classes.