Bøger af Simon Van Booy

Over the course of a single week, a woman who is ready to die finds an unexpected reason to live

The characters in Simon Van Booy's The Illusion of Separateness discover at their darkest moments of fear and isolation that they are not alone, that they were never alone, that every human being is a link in a chain we cannot see. This gripping novel--inspired by true events--tells the interwoven stories of a deformed German infantryman; a lonely British film director; a young, blind museum curator; two Jewish American newlyweds separated by war; and a caretaker at a retirement home for actors in Santa Monica. They move through the same world but fail to perceive their connections until, through seemingly random acts of selflessness, a veil is lifted to reveal the vital parts they have played in one another's lives, and the illusion of their separateness.

"Over the course of a single week in a small English village, a widowed octogenarian who has spent her last years alone, ready to die, discovers an unexpected reason to live. After living abroad for sixty years, Helen Cartwright returns to the English town where she was born. She buys a nondescript suburban house on Westminster Crescent, a nondescript suburban street, and settles into a repetitive, reclusive existence: "Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle-as though even for death there is a queue." Three uneventful, lonely years later, Helen's life takes a sudden turn when an unexpected guest arrives: a small, good-natured mouse. With his trademark compassion and uncanny attention to detail, Simon Van Booy illuminates not only the sustaining friendship forged between widower and mouse, but the reverberations of goodness that ripple out from acts of kindness"--

?She believed it was a gift to never truly know the self. We are not who we think we are, nor how others see us. Long before death, we die a thousand times at the hands of a definition.?A master storyteller's vision reawakens us to the human experience in this diverse, haunting, and unexpectedly humorous new collection of short fiction from Simon Van Booy?his first since Love Begins in Winter, winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.In his first book of short stories since Love Begins in Winter, for which he won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award), bestselling author Simon Van Booy offers a collection of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassion. Through characters including an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguard, the teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, a divorced amateur magician from New Jersey, and a Beijing street vendor who becomes an overnight billionaire, Tales of Accidental Genius contemplates individuals from different cultures, races?rich and poor, young and old?and reveals how faith and yearning for connection helps us all transcend darkness of fear and misfortune.

Will receive major review support?Simon Van Booy is widely considered among the finest writers of his generationSimon's bestselling titles are the novels, Everything Beautiful Began After and The Illusion of Separateness, both from HarperCollins. His most recent novel is Night Came with Many Stars from Godine?new in paperback this season.The author is very active on social media with a strong fan base.Simon's latest is comparable to other novels with a philosophical foundation such as Schopenhauer Cure and Stranger In the Lifeboat.

Rebecca is young, lost, and beautiful. A gifted artist, she seeks solace and inspiration in the Mediterranean heat of Athens?trying to understand who she is and how she can love without fear. George has come to Athens to learn ancient languages after growing up in New England boarding schools and Ivy League colleges. He has no close relationships with anyone and spends his days hunched over books or wandering the city in a drunken stupor.Henry is in Athens to dig. An accomplished young archaeologist, he devotedly uncovers the city's past as a way to escape his own, which holds a secret that not even his doting parents can talk about....And then, with a series of chance meetings, Rebecca, George, and Henry are suddenly in flight, their lives brighter and clearer than ever, as they fall headlong into a summer that will forever define them in the decades to come.

The Secret Lives of People in Love is the first short story collection by award-winning writer Simon Van Booy. These stories, set in Kentucky, New York, Paris, Rome, and Greece, are a perfect synthesis of intensity and atmosphere. Love, loss, human contact, and isolation are Van Booy's themes. In radiant 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. Included in this updated P.S. edition is the new story "The Mute Ventriloquist."

In The Illusion of Separateness, award-winning author Simon Van Booy tells a harrowing and enchanting story of how one man's act of mercy during World War II changed the lives of strangers, and how they each discover the astonishing truth of their connection. Whether they are pursued by Nazi soldiers, old age, shame, deformity, disease, or regret, the characters in this utterly compelling novel discover in their, darkest moments of fear and isolation that they are not alone, that they were never alone, that every human being is a link in an unseen chain.The Illusion of Separateness intertwines the stories of unique and compelling characters who—through seemingly random acts of selflessness—discover the vital parts they have played in each other's lives.

A true behind-the-scenes experience, this book introduces the reader to the Rolls-Royce master craftsmen at work.

On the verge of giving upanchored to dreams that never came true and to people who have long since disappeared from their livesVan Booy's characters walk the streets of these stark and beautiful stories until chance meetings with strangers force them to face responsibility for lives they thought had continued on without them.

An exquisite new collection of short stories from award-winning author Simon Van Booy. Over the past decade, Simon Van Booy has been listening to people's stories. With these personal accounts as a starting point, he has crafted a powerful collection of short fiction that takes readers into the innermost lives of everyday people. From a family saved from ruin by a mysterious benefactor, to a downtrodden boxer who shows unexpected kindness to a mugger, these masterfully written tales reveal not only the precarious balance maintained between grief and happiness in our lives, but also how the echoes of personal tragedy can shape us for the better. "Van Booy's stories are somehow like paintings the characters walk out of, and keep walking." -Los Angeles Times "Simon Van Booy knows a great deal about the complex longings of the human heart." --Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

Simon Van Booy, winner of the prestigious Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award,brings his gift for poetic dialogue and sumptuous imagery to thisdebut novel of longing and discovery amidst the ruins of Ancient Greece. Rebecca is young, lost and beautiful. A gifted artist, she seeks solace and inspiration in the Mediterranean heat of Athens trying to understand who she is and how she can love without fear. George has come to Athens to learn ancient languages after growing up in New England boarding schools and Ivy League colleges. He has no close relationships with anyone and spends his days hunched over books or in a drunken stupor. And then there is Henry, an accomplished young Welsh archaeologist who spends his days devotedly uncovering the citys past as a way to escape his own a past that holds a secret that not even his doting parents can talk about. As these three lost and lonely souls wander the city, a series of chance encounters sets off events that will forever define them, in this powerful portrait of friendship and young love.

Contains excerpts and passages from philosophical, biblical, and literary sources on the subject of the question Why We Fight? With an introduction and interstitial commentary by the author, this title is suitable for the modern philosophers.

Contains excerpts and passages from philosophical, biblical, and literary sources on the subject of the question Why Our Decisions Don't Matter? With an introduction and interstitial commentary by the author, this title is suitable for the modern philosophers.

Contains excerpts and passages from philosophical, biblical, and literary sources on the subject of the question Why We Need Love? With an introduction and interstitial commentary by the author, this title is suitable for the modern philosophers.