Woody Brown

Implosive and wonderfully inspirational. Upward Bound is acutely aware that be it indigo, autism, social class, or the gamma ray, everything and everyone is on the spectrum

PAUL BEATTY, Booker Prize winner of The Sellout

Great characters, great pace, great story – reading Upward Bound is a complicated joy

RODDY DOYLE, Booker Prize winner of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

A luminous, eye-opening novel of human connection and hope that will stay with me for a long time. Woody Brown’s writing is deeply moving, and filled with so much heart

Upward Bound gives us the world from the perspective of someone rarely noticed or understood . . . Wondrous and distinctly brilliant

RIVKA GALCHEN, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch

Reading Upward Bound reminded me why stories matter. Woody Brown’s writing carries an earned wisdom that remains with us long after the final page

Highly original and utterly captivating, this heart-warming debut explores the lives that intersect in a daycare centre for Los Angeles’s disabled community with utmost empathy and wit

Woody Brown has created a dazzling array of characters so real that I rooted for them, laughed and cried with them, and fell in love. Reading Upward Bound is deeply moving and wholly immersive, an experience that will change the way you look at the world. This novel is a gift, and I want to put it into the hands of every reader I know

ANGIE KIM, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls

Woody Brown accomplishes the seemingly impossible; he gives voice to a character with a sensibility both intelligent, ironic and loveable, who cannot himself speak

MONA SIMPSON, author of Anywhere but Here

Upward Bound is a highly original, captivating, brilliantly observed novel about the power of human relationships and the complexities of communication

CAOILINN HUGHES, author of The Wild Laughter

Brown’s compassionate debut delves with great insight into the lives and minds of the disabled residents of an adult day care center in Southern California . . . This captivating work illuminates a world too often ignored

Deft, wry, gorgeous and, most importantly, humanist. Upward Bound is one of those novels you want to give to everyone in your life. To help them understand the world a little better, to feel more deeply, to laugh, to know they are part of something greater

AUGUST THOMPSON, author of Anyone's Ghost

Woody Brown’s vibrant and profoundly moving debut novel takes us to sun-bleached California, to a daycare centre for Los Angeles’s disabled community. 
 
Among the clients and staff are Carlos, a charismatic aide who lost his mother as a boy, and Jorge, who is gentle, nonspeaking and prone to escape despite Carlos’s best efforts. Tom, a beautiful young man with cerebral palsy, pines for Ann, the lifeguard for the summer who feels out of her depth. Then there’s Dave, the centre’s director. He wanted to be an actor, but finds himself on a very different path. 
 
At the heart of Upward Bound is Walter, a recent college student returning to the company of his peers after a family tragedy. Around him, a story unfolds of friendships forged, connections missed and the dreams – some new, others almost forgotten – that shape us. With his wit, empathy and astonishing gifts as a storyteller, Woody Brown immerses us in life as we have never experienced it before.

Upward Bound

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

The perfect gift? A Penguin Shop gift card

Woody Brown

Praise for Upward Bound

Implosive and wonderfully inspirational. Upward Bound is acutely aware that be it indigo, autism, social class, or the gamma ray, everything and everyone is on the spectrum

Great characters, great pace, great story – reading Upward Bound is a complicated joy

A luminous, eye-opening novel of human connection and hope that will stay with me for a long time. Woody Brown’s writing is deeply moving, and filled with so much heart

Implosive and wonderfully inspirational. Upward Bound is acutely aware that be it indigo, autism, social class, or the gamma ray, everything and everyone is on the spectrum

Great characters, great pace, great story – reading Upward Bound is a complicated joy

A luminous, eye-opening novel of human connection and hope that will stay with me for a long time. Woody Brown’s writing is deeply moving, and filled with so much heart

Implosive and wonderfully inspirational. Upward Bound is acutely aware that be it indigo, autism, social class, or the gamma ray, everything and everyone is on the spectrum

Great characters, great pace, great story – reading Upward Bound is a complicated joy

A luminous, eye-opening novel of human connection and hope that will stay with me for a long time. Woody Brown’s writing is deeply moving, and filled with so much heart

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter