Coming of age odyssey from Cheltenham to Bled

2nd November 2020

Cows Can’t Jump by Philip Bowne, coming of age odyssey from Cheltenham to Bled.

Winner of the Spotlight First Novel Prize.

We received a huge number of books throughout the year, for which we are really grateful. Sometimes we get a debut author with a stand out talent and I think this is one such example.

This is the story of Billy, who is living with his parents – post school – working as a grave digger. They are not his clan, they argue, he doesn’t understand his mother and his father distracts himself by boxing. They also voted in the Brexit referendum in a way that doesn’t impress him (the author has written that Brexit sounds like a breakfast cereal – which it indeed does – I am now forever doomed to think that, as you are probably too, now that I have shared that!).

He goes to work at a Summer Camp where he meets the indomitable Eva from Lucerne. He falls for her and although he hasn’t a penny to his name, he is determined to hop over to Switzerland in hot pursuit. At first she seems enamoured by the idea but then she promptly shifts the goalposts – as he is en route – and arranges a specific midnight meeting in Bled (that’s Slovenia), well East of Switzerland.

And this is the story of his adventures and of the encounters he has,  through Switzerland to Croatia and on – eventually – to Bled. With each leg of the journey, his money gets depleted and all the while the clock is ticking.

The author rides a nice line between entertaining absurdism and events and observations that are plain whacky; I think for the most part he kept me utterly entertained (even though there are parts that won’t appeal to animal lovers). I felt towards the end his inventive writing and storytelling lost its edge, the narrative ran out of steam a little, specifically when Billy meets Louis and Marko and then later when he hooks up with refugees. Endings are always the hardest to pen, I say that as a reader.

Of course the ultimate hook is the question – will he get to meet Eva in Bled at the appointed time? She has chosen the church on the island in the lake at Bled and I was so impressed by the author’s determination to do some method writing (as opposed to method acting) – he wanted to know what it would feel like to swim across from the shore to the church. It was COLD! You can read about the author’s adventures in Bled HERE.

This is a good and entertaining story, written by an author who has a terrific writing style. AND. Bled is now on my must-visit list, thank you Philip! I wonder what is next!

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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