The other hand by Chris Cleave

This is a profoundly moving and memorable asylum seeker story.  It offers the reader an understanding of the real pain and trauma that some refugees undergo in their quest for survival.  The main character is a Nigerian known as Little Bee.  She leaves a detention centre in London and seeks help from a family, who 2 years earlier were holidaying in Nigeria.  The mother is also facing her own problems with the recent suicide of her husband.  The young child's obsession with Batman provides light relief and a touch of humour to a rather serious situation.