Blog tour: We Can Be Heroes - Catherine Bruton

Today I'm welcoming Catherine Bruton to 'A Dream of Books' as part of her first ever blog tour for her debut novel 'We Can Be Heroes'.

Publication day!

O! M! Golly! Gosh! My book is out today. Actually, factually today! On real shelves, in real bookshops. Beautiful shiny  copies  of ‘We Can be Heroes’ with nice foily bits on the covers and the most fabulous manga cartoon artwork inside and lots and lots of words written by me. 

I’m on holiday, in deepest darkest Cornwall but I am going to drag the family off the beach and over to Truro  later so I can stare at the foil-covered beauteousness of it in Waterstones. I contemplated  camping outside last  night like they do when Harry Potter comes out, but decided it was too cold and I don’t do cold – or camping really.

So instead I’ve been training my kids to do a spot of improv’ ankle-biter publicity. Child no. 1 (aged six, code name Moozle) has been practising saying loudly,  ‘Mummy, isn’t that your book?’ and pointing  in wide-eyed wonder at the amazing techni-colour loveliness that is  my masterpiece on the shelves, whilst Child no 2 (aged eight, code named Pookin but if you call him that he’ll have to kill you) declares in his loudest (but cutest) voice,  ‘Yes,  and didn’t it get described as an ‘outstanding debut’ in ‘The Bookseller’? And didn’t that nice man, Alan Gibbons, say it was a ‘remarkable, important book’ in ‘Books for Keeps’?

Meanwhile long-suffering hubbie (who wishes to be code-named Golden Eagle for reasons unknown but probably related to James Bond/Alex Rider obsession)  hums  the tune to David Bowie’s ‘We Can be Heroes’ in a subliminal way so that shoppers find themselves magnetically drawn towards masterpiece on the shelves.  I’ve negotiated a Hello Kitty Pez and a packet of Pokemon Level X Inferno cards as bribes, which is a total bargain, I reckon.  Oh and  Golden Eagle can have a lie-in and a packet of M and S hankies! Sorted. 

Oh, and the book is buying them pressies. Did you know books could do that? You know like new baby brothers and sisters do, when they bring pressies from the womb for their elder siblings (how do they do that? are there shopping malls in there?). My baby brother bought me a copy of ‘My Naughty Little Sister’  when he was born. I was too young to be offended  at the time but I’m getting the hump in retrospect – and how did he source that, huh?  Amniotic Amazon? I tell you, it’s a fix and I’m onto it!

Anyway, ‘We Can be Heroes’ has robbed my kiddywinkles of any semblance of decent mothering for the last few months, so I figure it owes them big time. So the masterpiece is buying Moozle a pair of wheelie shoes -  because  they are the footwear of choice of my main character Priti whose mad-bonkers dress sense was inspired by the Moozle  herself (she once went out with a pair of tights on her head but not on her legs, ‘Because that would have looked weird, Mummy!’) Meanwhile,  Pookin (sorry, Joe -  baby names are so not cool when you are eight) is getting a proper artist’s sketch book for drawing his cartoons in cos he’s a bit of a manga fan, just like Ben my other main character who doodles his way through the book and whose cartoon actually appears in the back (and is my absolute favourite ever bit of the whole thing!).

Just had a horrible thought. Book has not bought gift for the Golden Eagle who  has been v supportive spouse and pedantic proof-reader (lawyers really are very pernickety, it turns out!) and is already less than delighted at being the inspiration for the main character’s dad who died in the 9/11  attacks ten years before the story starts. ‘How could you kill me off in print?’ he wailed when he found out. ‘Why couldn’t I be the hero and do a car chase and kill some baddies and stuff?’ I tried to explain that Ben spends most of the book trying to connect with the father he never knew – and that there are baddies, and bomb-plots and kidnapping and stuff and  they are all sort of a result of his character dying. But Golden Eagle is unconvinced and still sulking about  literary husbicide (is that the word for killing your husband? If not, what is? Please help). And choice of gift is proving a little tricky in light of his character’s untimely demise. Will have to go for garden vouchers and hope for the best!

So, publicity is covered, the book has nearly finished its publication day gift shopping, book gazing is scheduled and then what? I guess then I just have to sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting for people to read it and tell me what they think of it.....Which is the only bad thing about this whole publication day extravaganza! ..... People might actually read it!!!  I mean, this should be a good thing, right? But  when you’ve stolen bits of family legend (like the pooing in the bath incident – sorry Tricksy!)  and the odd clearly recognisable character trait (Nuffty, Jed may have borrowed your wardrobe and your passion for The Reds but you are way nicer than he is – honestly, promisedly!) Basically, I figure half my family  and friends might not be be talking to me after they’ve read it.

And then what if people don’t like it?  It could be like when you tell people what your new baby is called and you can tell right away  that they hate the name  cos they put on this expression of polite horror and then come out with loads of euphemisms, like, ‘Oh! What an unusual  choice!’  (believe me, I know, I plumped for an old lady name for my daughter – sorry, kid!). What if it’s like that?  What if everyone hates it. No, wait, the nice lady from Chicklish said ‘Bruton is brilliant’ and  that  lovely man from the Bookbag called it, ‘ An important book: brave, honest, funny and very tense...’ so if everyone else hates it and my family disown me, I figure they can be my new BFFs.

OK. I’ve got all my ducks in a row (I have ALWAYS wanted to say that cos my management consultant bro in law says it and I’ve never really known what it meant!)  the kids are drilled, the pressies are wrapped and the sparkling grape juice is on ice (can’t do real shampoo – might get too giddy and do cartwheels in Cornish Waterstones and nobody wants to see me doing gymnastics - not at my age)  So all that remains is for me to deliver my closing line.

So, when I’m standing in Waterstones later and  Moozle declares in finely drilled prose ‘Mummy, isn’t that your novel? The one  that was described  by the reviewers as a ‘big brave book’ and ‘a remarkable debut’?’  I shall simply blush modestly and declare with touching humility (and a nod to Andy McDowell in ‘Four Weddings’), ‘Is it? I hadn’t noticed!’

And then break out into Riverdance/break-dance routine up and down the aisle!

http://catherinebruton.com

Review: We Can Be Heroes - Catherine Bruton

We Can Be Heroes by Catherine Bruton, published by Egmont on 1st August 2011

Goodreads synopsis:
My dad was killed in the 9/11 attacks in New York. But the stuff in this book isn't about that. It's about the summer my mum went away. The summer that me and Jed and Priti tried to catch a suicide bomber and prevent an honour killing. There's stuff about how we built a tree house and joined the bomb squad; how I found my dad and Jed lost his; and how we both lost our mums then found them again. So it's not really about 9/11 but, then again, none of those things would have happened if it hadn't been for that day. So I guess it's all back to front, sort of...

Review:

‘We Can Be Heroes’ is Catherine Bruton’s debut novel.  From the first few pages we learn that the main character Ben, lost his Dad in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in America.  This sets the tone for a book which doesn’t hold back from exploring and confronting difficult subjects. 

Ben is staying with his grandparents for the summer.  The reason for his mother’s absence is hinted at but never explicitly explained.  He soon makes friends with Priti, a young Muslim girl in the neighbourhood and they are joined by his cousin Jed who has also come to stay.  Over the course of the summer, they learn to tackle family issues, grief and bereavement, whilst also learning about the people around them.        

One of the main themes of the book is racial intolerance and prejudice.  Some of the characters in the story are very quick to judge others by the way they dress, the colour of their skin or their religion.  This causes disharmony between them and illustrates the irrational way in which people make snap judgements or assessments about each other or discriminate wrongly on the basis of race.

The topic of 9/11 is also predominant throughout.  This is a tough issue to write about but I felt that Catherine Bruton tackled it bravely and in such a way that it was handled sensitively and with great insight.  It wasn’t written about in a gratuitous way but explored the impact and aftermath of this event on the relatives of the people that died that day.          

One of my favourite things about the book was the way in which Ben is forever drawing pictures and comics and envisions speech bubbles and weird and wonderful outfits for the people in the story.  There is a short manga comic at the back of the book which is the culmination of Ben’s work and which is awesome!   

Although not normally the sort of book I would pick up and read, I found 'We Can Be Heroes' to be an interesting, engaging and thought provoking read which delivers a powerful message about today's society. 

Don't forget to come back on Monday 1st August when I'll be hosting a stop on Catherine's first ever blog tour!