My #1 book of the year comes from an author whose work I have followed pretty much since his debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of People in Love in 2007. That was actually the second of his works that I read, first discovering him thanks to my friends at HarperCollins with his follow-up collection, Love Begins in Winter published in 2009. I didn’t do a list of favorite books read in that year, but I suspect Love Begins in Winter would have at minimum been in my Top 10, with a good chance it would have ranked considerably higher. After publishing a trio of books of essays, Simon published his first novel in 2011, Everything Beautiful Began After which ranked #8 in my list of Top Books Read in 2011. Two years later he repeated this feat, coming in at #8 again with his 2012 novel, The Illusion of Separateness. He appeared in my Top Books Read in 2015 list twice! I had the opportunity to read an advanced copy of his 2016 novel, Father’s Day which came in at #6, but his 2015 collection of short stories, Tales of Accidental Genius cracked the Top 5 by coming in at #3. I regret to say that I haven’t read his Gertie Milk series for ‘Tweens which has seen two books published in 2017 and 2018. For some reason I didn’t do a list of Top Books read in 2018, but if I had, I’m quite certain Simon’s collection of short stories, The Sadness of Beautiful Things would have made a strong showing. Now, with his latest, gorgeous new novel, Night Came With Many Stars he has topped my list of annual great books, a feat which I so thrilled about.
#1 – Night Came With Many Stars by Simon Van Booy (2021) – It’s always exciting when you’re a few chapters in and you start to realize that the book you’re reading is going to be a great one. Night Came With Many Stars the latest novel by Simon Van Booy, is one such book. A gifted writer, Simon’s books are all good, but there are a couple of his that rank among my favorites. His latest, a exquisite telling of four generations of a family living in Kentucky from the early 30’s to 2010, is an unexpected and delightful return to that echelon of beauty. Along with Patricia A. McKillip, Van Booy is one of the few authors whose use of language alone is enough to get me to read their work, regardless of subject. In this novel, the care and warmth in which Simon treats the members of this family is simply breath-taking, even as it is simple.
In each generation, we’re looking at a family that would be considered poor, but as one father asks their daughter, “do you feel poor?” Van Booy subtly demonstrates every parent’s desire for a better life for their children that becomes supremely evident when you think about the opening chapter, and the horrors Carol faced as a child, to the final chapter, and the close of Carol’s life in 2010, surrounded by her family, working hard to prosper in a modern world. The book is filled with hardships, and even danger, but the core of these families, both genetic, and chosen, is love and goodness.
Thank you Simon, for another exquisitely gorgeous book, with language you can wrap yourself up in and drift into that night that came with many stars.