The Sadness of Beautiful Things
Stories
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Van Booy's latest (after 2017's Father's Day) is a thoroughly satisfying story collection inspired by personal anecdotes the author has heard from strangers. The sometimes otherworldly tales showcase misery tinged with a silver lining of hope. In "Playing with Dolls," a couple whose daughter died in an accident brings home a robot replica of her. In "The Green Blanket," an elderly man with melancholia is successfully treated by a doctor who prescribes magical eyewear. In "The Doorman," a world-famous musician and a blind pianist are connected through the pianist's recently deceased doorman. Van Booy also explores how encounters with strangers can haunt someone's life: in "The Hitchhiker," a man on his way to Scotland for a job makes a connection with the woman who gives him a ride but fails to act on it, and in "The Saddest Case of True Love," a man receives news of a death from a woman who once showed him around Florence. Van Booy sometimes takes a maudlin turn, as in "The Pigeon," an unconvincing story about a boxer who chooses to take the man who mugged him under his wing. But Van Booy succeeds more often than he falters, making this a vivid collection. Fans of heartfelt stories with a hint of science fiction will find much to enjoy.
