Simon Van Booy es un autor galardonado cuyas obras se caracterizan por una profunda exploración de la experiencia humana. Su prosa, a menudo imbuida de melancolía pero teñida de esperanza, captura magistralmente las complejidades de las relaciones y la búsqueda de sentido en un mundo transitorio. Van Booy profundiza en cuestiones filosóficas, examinando cómo dan forma a nuestras vidas y percepciones de la realidad. Su estilo es poético e incisivo, ofreciendo a los lectores un viaje literario introspectivo e inolvidable.
"They Must Fall: Muhammad Ali and the Men He Fought" showcases powerful images and stories of Muhammad Ali and his opponents, captured by photographer Michael Brennan. Over decades, Brennan tracked down Ali's former rivals, revealing their journeys through unique photos and narratives. The book features an essay by Jimmy Breslin, highlighting Ali's profound impact on society.
A family saga--told in a captivating narrative that leaps forwards and backwards in time--of one family's struggle to survive in the rural United States over 100 years. Carol was thirteen when her daddy lost her in a game of cards. One year later--pregnant and with nowhere to go--she is taken in by Bessie and Martha, who run a secret refuge for "lost women." Fifty years on in the same small Kentucky town, Carol's thirteen-year-old grandson rides his BMX and watches wrestling, mesmerized by 1980s excess, while his community fights to stay employed in factories and on farms. Simon Van Booy has woven the many struggles and small triumphs of three generations of a single Kentucky family into an intimate portrayal of American life that includes the Depression, war, faith, the hardship of women, racial prejudice, and rural disenfranchisement. Van Booy captures the distinctive voices of each generation, time and again revealing the sacred bonds of family and friendship in times of crisis. With stark, poetic clarity, Night Came with Many Stars is a captivating journey through one century that reveals an America rarely seen.
When devastating news shatters the life of six-year-old Harvey, she finds herself in the care of a veteran social worker and alone in the world save for one relative she has never met - a disabled ex-con, haunted by a violent past he can't escape. Moving between past and present, and written in a wonderful raw, spare prose, this novel is the journey of two people searching for a future in the ruins of their past
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
This book offers an in-depth look at the Rolls-Royce factory in Goodwood, featuring high-quality images by Mariona Vilarós that detail every production step. With exclusive access to the manufacturing process, it showcases the craftsmanship behind iconic models, along with a rich history and unseen photos of Sir Henry Royce.
"As a writer lies dying, he has one last story to tell: a tale of faith and devotion, a meditation on what lies beyond this life, and a prayer of gratitude that may lead to rebirth. This is Simon Van Booy at his visionary best. "Language is a map leading to a place not on the map," announces a young writer lying in a hospital bed at the beginning of The Presence of Absence. As he contemplates his impending physical disappearance and the impact on his beloved wife, he realizes, "Life doesn't start when you're born . . . it begins when you commit yourself to the eventual devastating loss that results from connecting to another person." Infused with poetic clarity and graced with humor, Simon Van Booy's innovative novella asks the reader to find beauty-even gratitude-in the cycle of birth and death. Stripped of artifice, The Presence of Absence is a meditation between the writer and the reader, an imaginative work that challenges the deceit of written words and explores our strongest emotions. Simon Van Booy is not only a master storyteller but a writer whose fiction is rich with philosophical insights into things both mapped and undiscovered. The Presence of Absence parts the darkness to reveal what has been just out of sight all along"--
Eine kleine Bäckerei in Paris, mitten in den Wirren des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Ein Soldat, dem in einem Akt der Güte das Leben geschenkt wird und der damit das Richtige tut. Eine mutige junge Frau, die offene Arme hat für ein Neugeborenes ohne Namen. Und ein Autor, der die Geschichte dieser Menschen in einer wunderbar zarten, eleganten Prosa erzählt – und dabei die unglaubliche Wucht menschlichen Schicksals entfaltet. Als Martin schon fast alt genug für die Schule ist, erzählen ihm seine Eltern, dass ihnen vor einigen Jahren, mitten in den Kriegswirren, ein Fremder ein Baby auf den Arm gedrückt hat: ihn selbst. Er braucht Jahre, um seine Herkunft zu begreifen – und er braucht sein ganzes Leben, um dem Mann zu begegnen, der ihn einst gerettet hat. Und auch dann weiß er nicht, wer da vor ihm steht. Inspiriert durch eine wahre Geschichte, erzählt Simon van Booy davon, wie unsere Leben untrennbar miteinander verbunden sind. Davon, dass die Welt nur scheinbar ein fremder Ort ist und die Menschen darin uns näher sind, als wir ahnen.
"Je voulais seulement nie plonger dans son regard vert, écouter le son cadencé de sa voix, comme si ses mots étaient les notes que j'avais toujours cherché à entendre, celles que je n'avais jamais jouées, les sons mêmes de la vie". Dans l'étui de son violoncelle, Bruno conserve un talisman : une moufle, celle que portait son amie d'enfance, morte il y a vingt ans. Dans sa poche, Hannah a glissé un fruit cueilli sur l'arbre aux oiseaux qu'aimait son frère Jonathan. Jusqu'à ce que leurs chemins se croisent, ils ignorent tout du mystérieux enchaînement qui les conduit l'un vers l'autre. Comment se reconnaître? Il faut croire encore aux miracles.
