Keeper (Peet novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | Mal Peet |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Yves St. Laurent |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult sports novel |
| Publisher | Walker Books |
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Publication date
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6 October 2003 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 230 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 60376723 |
| LC Class | PZ7.P3564 Kee 2003 PZ7.P3564 Kee 2003 |
Keeper is a sports novel for young adults by Mal Peet, published by Walker Books in 2003. It was Peet's first novel and the first of three (as of 2012) football stories featuring South American sports journalist Paul Faustino. Cast as an interview with Faustino, the world's best goalkeeper, El Gato ("The Cat"), tells his life story. Peet won the Branford Boase Award, recognising the year's best debut novel for children.
Walker's North American division Candlewick Press published the first U.S. edition in 2005. Danish and Hungarian-language translations were also published that year and followed by German, Italian, and Spanish-language editions.
Keeper was Peet's first novel, undertaken at age 52 and completed three years later.
When he won the 2009 Guardian Prize for his third Paul Faustino football novel, Exposure, he told the sponsoring newspaper he had felt that 'football books for children were "pretty much hey"'. Also, "I used to play all the time. I would play football when it was light and read when it was dark. Now I get to play football vicariously."
Peet described his creative occupation thus: "I come up here in the morning to a pleasant room in the roof of my house and imagine I'm a black South American football superstar, then I have to imagine I'm a female pop celebrity who's pregnant. It's a completely mad way to spend your time. If I did it in public I would be sectioned. Writing is a form of licensed madness."
Paul Faustino, a journalist for La Nación, is interviewing El Gato about his recent World Cup win. During the interview, El Gato tells Faustino about his teenage years and his entry into soccer. When El Gato tells Faustino that he is coached by a ghost known to El Gato as "the Keeper," Faustino thinks El Gato is lying to him. However, El Gato seems honest and looks like he is telling the truth.
El Gato continues to tell the interviewer his story. As a teenager, he secretly trains with the Keeper in an abandoned soccer field hidden in the rainforest. The young El Gato convinces his parents his time in the rainforest is the result of his fascination with nature. His family takes him for a naturalist, buying him collection materials and calling him "Professor." The charade continues until El Gato turns 15, when he is expected to start working in the logging industry with his father. He does not tell the Keeper that he will no longer come to practice.
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Wikipedia