Waiting for Bojangles, the book about a child with eccentric parents, had sold over 120,000 copies in France, just in three months after being released in January 2016!
In this short novel, an unconventional and, apparently, blissfully happy couple, as seen through the eyes of their son, dance their way through life, mostly to the tune of “Mr. Bojangles,” sung by Nina Simone. Unsurprisingly, their carefree dancing, work-free lifestyle, and general obliviousness to the outside world are eventually interrupted by dismal reality...
With its irreverent reference to Samuel Beckett’s En attendant Godot (1952), the novel’s title is a call to be mindful of the futility of endlessly waiting for fun, love, or fulfillment. The main characters wait only for the next song to begin as they float through the enchanted ballroom they have made of their spacious apartment. As for the narrator’s reminiscences, they are recounted in a tone of bemused wonderment, of nostalgic longing for a lost paradise. Contrary to expectations, there is no high-minded lament over a wasted childhood due to dysfunctional parents.
Before he wrote En attendant Bojangles (Waiting for Bojangles) in seven weeks at his parents’ home, 35-year-old Olivier Bourdeaut had "failed at just about everything else".
His last job was as a switchboard operator for an educational publishing company, "surrounded by all the books that tortured me as a child". Like the boy narrator in his book, Bourdeaut was always getting his letters and numbers mixed up. But in the three months since his beautifully written tale of a boy growing up in a bohemian home where unopened bills pile up like mountain ranges in the hall, he has won several of France’s top literary awards and his book has risen to the top of the bestseller lists.
His story has charmed critics and public alike.
* The website www.colibri.bg is optimized 
