Simon Van Booy has written three collections of short stories. The first was The Secret Lives of People in Love; the second collection, Love Begins in Winter, won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.[2][3] His third collection, Tales of Accidental Genius, was released in 2015.[4]
Van Booy's first novel, Everything Beautiful Began After, was released in 2011, and was nominated for the 2012 Indies Choice Book Award for Fiction,[5] while his second novel, The Illusion of Separateness, was released in 2013. He released a third novel titled Father's Day in 2016.[6]
Van Booy's fourth novel, Night Came with Many Stars, was released in 2021. NPR Books review Jason Sheehan called it Van Booy's best novel to date, writing “It is a heartbreaking book, a gorgeous book . . . In Night, Van Booy finds the weakness, grace and beauty of common lives fully lived.” [7] Boston Globe columnist Joan Frank wrote “Kindness and raw luck undergird Night Came with Many Stars… And like Dickens’s young heroes, Van Booy’s determined souls act with their whole hearts—as does this brave, fierce novel—to earn what good may come.” [8] USA Today named Night Came with Many Stars to a list of “5 Books Not to Miss.” [9]
In 2010, Van Booy released his first children's book, Pobble's Way,[10] to be followed by Gertie Milk and the Keeper of Lost Things in 2017.[11]
