Whenever I read a particularly good book of short stories, I think man, I really gotta do this more often!! I think I pledged that to myself back when I read and reviewed Vanilla Bright, Like Eminem by the always stellar Michel Faber last winter. Now it’s June and I’m just getting to Simon Van Booy’s Love Begins in Winter. Gah! Will it be autumn before I get around to China Mieville’s Looking For Jake? Sigh.
But back to the task at hand. In this collection of stories are 5 little distilled gems of the transformative power of love. The first, which gave the collection it’s name, tells the tale of Bruno Bonnet, a world-renowned cellist. While he is an accomplished musician, his life is only about that. It’s easy for him to not participate much in the land of the living because he is always off to another city, another country. One day he literally bumps into a woman at the Beverly Hills Hotel, a place that he as described as For anyone who likes pink, it’s paradise, and realizes he can finally reach out to another and sees hope and promise in their unusual meeting.
In Tiger, Tiger, a young pediatrician reflects on her life and choices a couple of years after a chance meeting with an enigmatic Swedish doctor. The Missing Statues details a story a young diplomat tells a Polish priest on a Rome park bench. The Coming and Going of Strangers concerns a family of Irish Roma gypsies and the lasting legacy of chance. Finally, The City of Windy Trees has hapless George Frack discovering, to his astonishment, that not only does he have a young daughter in Sweden but he is ready to take on the task of being a Pappa and engaging in life once again.
These stories are all very finely wrought, with beautiful language and imagery. At the end of the book was a little “Get to know the author” section that was nearly as entrancing as the book itself. Highly recommended.
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