WINNER OF THE 2009 FRANK O'CONNOR SHORT STORY PRIZE.
"These stories take on the benign quality of fairy tales as their grieving or reclusive characters are suddenly transformed by enigmatic human contact...its combination of staccato sentences and tidy symbolism transforms the finest passages into little haikus of prose." Daily Telegraph
“Intense, deliberate and calmly beautiful stories... He has a delicate touch; his vision is mythic, detached... a special writer, magpie by intent, formal yet engaging, and a skilful exponent of the short story as the surest portrait of lives as lived.” Irish Times
“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.”
-- John Koethe, author of Ninety-Fifth Street and Sally’s Hair
“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.”
— Roger Rosenblatt, author of Lapham Rising and Beet
“Love Begins in Winter brings to life the wistfulness of youth and the possibilities of young love with clear and graceful prose.”
— Jamie Saul, author of Light of Day
On the verge of giving up - anchored to dreams that never came true and to people who have long since disappeared from their lives - Van 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.
Simon van Booy grew up in rural Wales and the London suburbs. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times and New York Post. He lives in New York City.
Details
- ISBN 9781905636495
- Publication date: 11th June 2009
- Size: B format paperback
- Pages: 288
- RRP: £7.99
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