Upward Bound

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.


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.

‘Wonderfully inspirational’ PAUL BEATTY
‘A complicated joy’ RODDY DOYLE
‘A luminous novel of human connection and hope’ CECILE PIN

(c) Woody Brown 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

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
Awe-inspiring . . . deeply funny and eye-opening. If the highest calling of art is to open the heart to the perspective of others, thereby creating a more compassionate world, Upward Bound is a lodestar. Reading it, I felt energised to be a better person
MARIA SEMPLE, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette
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
CECILE PIN, author of Wandering Souls
Upward Bound is a book that feels as if it was painted by David Hockney. This is a story of friendship, dreams, and rich inner worlds. Woody Brown writes with a levity that cuts to the heart, in a language that brims with light
SEÁN HEWITT, author of Open, Heaven
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
JACQUELINE CROOKS, author of Fire Rush
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
Waterstones
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
[A] groundbreaking debut novelist
Publishers Weekly

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