The Garbage King
Elizabeth Laird

When Mamo, a homeless orphan, meets wealthy runaway Dani on the streets of Addis Ababa, they form an unlikely friendship. This fast moving adventure concentrates on the private hopes, dreams and feelings of its characters, but also has a sense of the gritty realities of street life.

This story of friendship and discovery with its thought-provoking message, will have you smiling, then frowning, then smiling again, all the way to the end.

Elizabeth Laird
The Garbage King

Elizabeth Laird was born in Wellington, New Zealand, but is of Scottish descent and was educated at Croydon High School.

She spent a year teaching in Malaysia, before studying languages at Bristol and Edinburgh universities. Elizabeth has spent many years living and working abroad, including long spells in Lebanon, Ethiopia and India. She now lives in Richmond with her husband, David McDowall, a writer on Middle Eastern Affairs.

Elizabeth has published many books for all ages and has won and been shortlisted for many prestigious awards. In 2008 Crusade was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book of the Year; Jake’s Tower was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and in 2004 The Garbage King won the Scottish Arts Council Book Prize.

(Page1)

"There was no light in the shack, none at all, except when the moon was shining. Mamo could see chinks of it then, through the gaps in the corrugated-iron roof.

But the moon wasn’t out tonight. Mamo shivered, pulled the ragged blanket over his head and huddled against his sister’s warm body. Tiggist had been facing away from him, but she turned over to lie n her back, the bare straw mattress rustling as she moved. He knew she was awake. He knew her eyes were open, and that she was staring up into the pitch-darkness."

Extract taken from The Garbage King by Elizabeth Laird published by Macmillan