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“It’s rare that reading, typically a solitary exercise, makes you feel so
connected to other people—particularly to the characters in this book.”
Read full review here
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“In the five impressionistic
stories in Van Booy’s latest collection, following The Secret
Lives of People in Love (2007), the author continues to develop
his highly original style…More about what is felt than what
happens, Van Booy’s stories pay beautiful homage to human
connection.” |
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“One worries, after reading a
debut short-story collection this breathtaking, what Simon Van
Booy could possibly do for an encore. Write something longer?
Take up haiku? Wander the world like a sadhu for a few decades
and send us another book as chillingly beautiful, like postcards
from Eden?...Van Booy's stories are somehow like paintings the
characters walk out of, and keep walking. |
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"His sentences are spare, subtle
and freighted, his images fresh...you see and feel his
settings…a first-rate storyteller." |
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"Resilient characters often emerge
from bleak circumstances with an unexpected and completely
engaging optimism in the strongest ones [stories] he [Van Booy]
shows an uncanny ability to create intense moods and emotions
within the space of a few poetic paragraphs."
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"Van Booy is
a remarkable young writer. Taste, touch, smell, sight and sound,
in spite of their evanescence, are frozen for a moment in these
stories and celebrated, along with their subtle interconnection
in all aspects of love." |
Robert Olen Bulter,
Pulitzer Prize-winning author |
“Simon Van Booy knows a great
deal about the complex longings of the human heart, and he
articulates those truths in his stories with pitch-perfect
elegance. Love Begins in Winter is a splendid collection, and
Van Booy is now a writer on my must-always-read list.” |
John Koethe,
author of Sally’s Hair |
“Simon Van Booy's stories in Love
Begins in Winter are as immediate and elusive as the dreams they
resemble. Marked by an intense inwardness, their characters'
lives intersect and evolve in constantly surprising ways,
carried forward by a prose as melodious and continuous as one of
the Bach Cello Suites played by the narrator of the title
story.” |
Roger Rosenblatt |
“Simon Van Booy seems to start
with a story in mind and then to turn it into a poem without
losing its narrative power. Love Begins in Winter is an
exquisite show of force.” |
Jamie Saul, author
of Light of Day |
“Love Begins in Winter brings to
life the wistfulness of youth and the possibilities of young
love with clear and graceful prose.” |
Binnie Kirshenbaum,
author of The Scenic Route |
“The stories of Love Begins in
Winter are stylistically brilliant and emotionally beautiful. I
found myself gasping, literally gasping, at surprises so
perfectly attuned as to be inevitable. Simon Van Booy is an
extraordinary writer, and this is a book to be read and reread
again and again.” |
Caroline Upcher |
Simon Van Booy's prose is as
economical as it is powerful. His characters are so real - and
their stories so poignant - that I yearned to reach out and
assure them of my understanding." |
Martin Page |
"Abandonnez votre famille, vos
enfants et vos amis;
démissionnez de votre travail et de vos engagements
bénévoles; laissez brûler votre dîner dans le four ...
et plongez vous dans ce livre. La vie réelle sent le
plastique à côté des mots de Simon Van Booy." |
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