Love Begins in Winter: Five Stories

by Simon Van Booy

Book Overview

"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." -- Robert Olen Butler, Pulitizer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain and Severance

A new collection of stories from award-winning...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061661473
• ISBN13: 9780061661471
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

An absolutely beautiful collection of short stories...

Some of the most beautiful short stories I've read in a long time. This collection is not very long but each of the five stories packs an emotional wallop and has definitely stuck in my mind more than a week after finishing the book. As you can tell from the title, each of these stories has to do with love--and each approaches the subject from a different angle. I've never read anything that Simon Van Booy has written but I'm definitely going to find his other book now. If you like short stories, I'd encourage you to read this book. It will make you look at love--and those you love--in a whole new light. One of the best books I read in 2009.

Daydreams

In these five stories, author Simon Van Booy speaks in a clairvoyant voice and a singular style that obscures the line between fiction and poetry. His dexterity with language is so fluid that it summons images of an acrobat flipping nouns and verbs rather than body parts. A series of mellifluous daydreams, the collection traverses time and space exploring the inner lives of individuals who long for lost love. From Bruno Bonnet, a celebrated cellist performing in Quebec, who continues to be enchanted by a childhood sweetheart to George Frack, a down-trodden office worker, who travels to Sweden to meet the daughter he has just discovered, the characters steal your heart and take your breath away.

Don't wait until winter.

"Love Begins in Winter" is a memorable book. The stories are sweet and possess underling truth. Several times I became afraid they might drift off to maudlin but they do not. They are purposeful, tie together and succeed beautifully. Simon van Booy has a gift for observation and there are at least 100 sentences in this book that I could read over and over again. He is a romantic, but one who feels and writes as deeply as he does from knowing both personal loss and growing wonder. He is both wise and hopeful. I look forward to his next book.

I have never written a fan letter until I read this book

Von Booy's use of language managed to engage me in a way in which I was immediately empathetic to the narrator. The stories are beautiful and tragic just like life. This book reminded me why I love story and why I write.

five well written relationship dramas

"Love Begins in Winter". Concert cellist Brunno is a loner who never moved past his sister's death; Hannah is a shop owner who never moved past her brother's death. Neither normally would make the first move yet this couple both make the first move when they meet in Beverly Hills. "Tiger, Tiger". In her thirties, her boyfriend's parents insist on meeting her. A pediatrician she is indifferent so she goes out to the Hamptons where Alan and Jennifer welcome her. However, in spite of eighteen months with Brian, she finds herself attracted to and fascinated by his mother until Dorothy takes a bite. "The Missing Statues". In St. Peter's Square, Max the diplomat cries as he knows how far he has come from his childhood growing without a father up in the sordid hidden side of Las Vegas; yet part of his tears are his way of thanking the person who gave him the courage to move on and up. "The Coming and Going of Strangers". The Irish gypsy saves the orphan Canadian child's life. Two decades later his son watches from a distance keeping her safe even as he loves her. "The City of Windy Trees". The letter shook George to the core. Chomping on Raisinets while sitting on his toilet, he ponders going from New York to meet his daughter in Sweden. These are five well written relationship dramas starring fully developed couples in each. The entries are fun to read, but suggest spread them out over a week or so even though the collection can easily be read in a night; by doing one say every two days, the protagonist remains front and center rather than the late gripping spin that the reader will expect by "The Missing Statues". LOVE BEGINS IN WINTER is an enjoyable reflective anthology. Harriet Klausner