Description
Book SynopsisSince the publication of his critically acclaimed debut collection The Secret Lives of People in Love, Simon Van Booy has been hailed as one of the most exciting and talented short-story writers in Anglo-American fiction. This magnificent collection brings together twenty-four stories by a writer of unparalleled lyricism, generosity and emotional power. Set in a range of locations, from Cornwall, Wales, and New York to Paris and Rome, these stark and beautiful stories are a perfect synthesis of intensity and atmosphere. Love, loss, isolation and the power of memory are Van Booy's themes, and in spare, economical prose he writes about the difficult choices we make in order to retain our humanity, and about the redemptive power of love in a violent world.
Trade Review'Its combination of staccato sentences and tidy symbolism transforms the finest passages into little haikus of prose.'
-- Daily Telegraph
'Incurable romantics will savour Simon Van Booy’s tender, Maupassant-like fables.'
-- New York Times
'His stories are full of the most exquisite insights.'
-- Patrick Cotter, Director of the Frank O’Connor Award
'Breathtaking. . .chillingly beautiful, like postcards from Eden... Van Booy’s stories are somehow like paintings the characters walk out of, and keep walking.'
-- Los Angeles Times
'Van Booy is a master of the atmospheric scene written in lyrical prose.'
-- The Short Review
'A first-rate storyteller'
-- Newsday
'He shows an uncanny ability to create intense moods and emotions within the space of a few poetic paragraphs.'
-- Booklist
'Each of these stories has moments of sheer loveliness.
-- Publishers Weekly
