Divided City

By Theresa Breslin

A gripping and powerful story of two boys from rival backgrounds, for fans of The Hate U Give and The Upper World.

Glasgow is a divided city. Catholics and Protestants; Celtic and Rangers. Stumble down the wrong street at night, and you might not find your way home again.

Joe and Graham should never have become friends, but football brings them together. They don't want to get involved in the conflict and rivalry. They just want to talk, play, live and breathe the beautiful game.

But the Orange Walks are beginning - the annual marches that bring the city's tensions to the surface. And Joe and Graham have to decide where their loyalties lie.

A powerful, gripping story about friendship, prejudice and tolerance from multi-award-winning author Theresa Breslin.

'An outstanding writer . . . Superb' Independent

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0552551880
• ISBN13: 9780552551885
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Corgi Books
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Award winning novel, set in Scotland

This book has won several awards, including the Carnegie award for young readers. What a great literary example of how fiction can both entertain and educate, teaching us about geography, history, and multi-culturalism. This is the description from the rear cover: A young man lies bleeding in the street. It could be any street, in any city. But it's not. It's Glasgow. And it's May - the marching season. The Orange Walks have begun. Graham doesn't want to be involved. He just wants to play football with his new mate, Joe. But when he witnesses a shocking moment of violence, suddenly he and Joe are involved. With Catholics, and with Protestants. With a young Muslim asylum-seeker, and his girlfriend. With all the old rivalries - and fears... A gripping tale about two boys who must find their own answers - and their own way forward - in a world divided by differences.

My Multicultural Book Report

This book's genre is realistic fiction. It is set in the city of Glasgow, which is the biggest city in Scotland. Glasgow has a history of sectarianism between Catholics and Protestants and that is the main theme of this book.The main characters in the book are Graham and Joe. Graham is protestant and Joe is Catholic. They meet through playing soccer and the book is about how their friendship grows in spite of their differences. At the beginning of the book, Graham witnesses an attack on an asylum seeker. The asylum seeker is called Kyoul and is stabbed in the attach. Graham calls an ambulance and Kyoul asks for his help to return a phone. Graham does this,but it leads to him getting more involved and he needs Joe to help him. Through working together, the boys realise that being of different religions or from different countries doesn't matter, it is working together that counts. This book is the kind of book that you just want to keep on reading to see what happens and you feel sad when you get to the end. It is a realistic story that shows some history of Scotland without taking sides. It also shows us more recent problems like the difficulties asylum seekers have when they move to a new country. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story.