"The Illusion of Separateness"

"The Illusion of Separateness" by Simon Van Booy is one of two novels he has written in addition to a couple of collections of short stories, a children's bedtime story picture book, and he's also edited  three non-fiction philosophy books.  Van Booy was awarded an MFA and won the H. R. Hays Poetry Prize as well as the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.  He has written for the New York Times, the Guardian, NPR, and BBC.

Van Booy was born in London and grew up in South Wales and Oxford before playing football in Kentucky.  He has lived in Athens and Paris and currently resides in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.  His web site is www.SimonVanBooy.com.

Although "The Illusion of Separateness" is a novel, it reads like a series of short stories and the author writes brief chapters on his characters.  The story is  inspired by true events and tells the interwoven stories of "a deformed German infantryman; a lonely British film director; a young, blind museum curator; two Jewish American newlyweds separated by war; and a caretaker at a retirement home for actors in Santa Monica."

In the acknowledgements at the end of the book, Van Booy tells us about the real life people who inspired this story.

It's a quick, fascinating read that I couldn't put down. Reading this makes me want to read more of his work so I'm moving next to one of his collection of short stories.  pazt