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Recommendations: Please Don’t Come Back From The Moon

Please Don't Come Back From The Moon is the debut novel of Dean Bakopoulos. I bought this book in a small bookstore in 2006, intending to read it on my summer holiday in France, but never quite got to it. I started it, but never finished. More due to my lack of concentration than the book.

I came back to this book last October when I was in the hospital for surgery, read about halfway through the book there, then forgot about it, but finished it yesterday. It's a quirky book, as the title suggests, but in the end it comes down to being about people (most books are). When I was reading it in the hospital it reminded me of Catcher In The Rye. It's not about a young adolescent, but it certainly has the same struggle. In short it's about an American town, from which one day all fathers disappear, suggested to have gone to the moon. Suddenly all the boys have to be the grown men in the town, looking after their mothers and trying to make something of their lives.

The book follows the struggle of Micheal, as he chases his dream of becoming a writer, though never quite getting there. As he looks for love, companionship, a family, all the while dreading that one day the moon will call to him. It's not a happy book, by any means. It's honest, and as the blurb suggests, portrays the flipside of the American Dream. It's bitter, it looks futureless, but in the end it's hopeful.

Like the main character, I struggled, to read this book, but it's a good read! Clicking the image below will take you to Amazon where you can buy the book.