I’m delighted to welcome you today to my stop on the blog tour for the heartwarming and poignant Keeping Mum by James Gould-Bourn. Thank you to Alainna Hadjigeorgiou and Orion Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this gorgeous book.
About the book:
Danny Malooley’s life is falling apart.
He’s a single parent with an eleven-year-old son, Will, who hasn’t spoken since the death of his mother in a car crash fourteen months ago. He’s being pursued by a dodgy landlord for unpaid rent and, to make matters worse, he’s just lost his job on a building site. Struggling to find work, and desperate for money, Danny decides to do what anyone in his position would do.
He becomes a dancing panda.
After seeing street performers in his local park raking it in, he puts all sense of pride aside and spends his last fiver on a vomit-ridden costume… only to discover that the humiliation of his terrible rhythm is worth it. Not because he’s flush with cash (quite the opposite) but Will has finally spoken to him for the first time since his mother’s death. The problem is Will is unaware that the panda is in fact his father, and Danny doesn’t want to reveal his true identity in case Will stops talking to him. But Danny can’t keep up the ruse forever.
A surprising, laugh-out-loud and uplifting story of a father and son reconnecting in the most unlikely of circumstances.
About the author:
James Gould-Bourn was born and raised in Manchester. He is an award-winning screenwriter, and has previously worked for various landmine-clearance NGOs in Africa and the Middle East.
Keeping Mum is his first novel.
My Review:
Oh my word, what a gloriously funny, poignant and heartwarming read Keeping Mum is! Written by award winning screenwriter and debut author James Gould-Bourn, it’s a compelling page turner of a read that once started is impossible to put down.
Danny Maloney’s life is falling apart. He’s a single parent to eleven year old Will, who hasn’t spoken since the death of his mother in a car crash just over a year ago. As if that isn’t enough, he’s also being pursued for unpaid rent by a dodgy landlord and has now lost his job on a building site. Struggling to find work and desperate for money, Danny does what any father would do. He puts all sense of pride to one side and becomes a dancing panda!
What follows is a story that will have you howling with laughter one second, then reaching for the tissues the next. With a cast of colourful characters that help bring the story alive, this is a book that stole a little piece of my heart. Danny and Will’s grief is palpable, but Keeping Mum isn’t a sad story by any means. It’s the story of a little boy and his dad who somehow need to find their way back to each other.
And maybe, just maybe, a dancing panda will be exactly what they need.
Filled to the brim with humour, this is a beautifully written and uplifting story of love, loss and family. Keeping Mum is as hilarious as it is poignant and I devoured every word of this incredible debut. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss as I turned the final page, not wanting to say goodbye to these characters who I’d grown to love so much.
James Gould-Bourn has written a debut to be proud of and I can’t wait to read more by this talented author in the future.
Highly recommended.
Keeping Mum by James Gould-Bourn is available to buy now: Amazon UK
Check out what these other wonderful bloggers have to say about this book:
Cal Turner Reviews 