Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★☆ (4.3/5)
Genre: Literary Fiction, Romance, Contemporary Fiction

Book Review:
Simon Van Booy has built a reputation as a master of the short story, a writer whose lyrical prose and profound insights have earned him international acclaim. ''Everything Beautiful Began After,'' his debut novel, demonstrates that his gifts extend to longer forms—it's a book that will break your heart and put it back together again.

The novel opens in Athens, a city of ancient ruins and modern chaos, where three young people are about to collide. George is an American archaeologist, drinking to escape memories he can't face. Jason is a British painter, searching for something he can't name. Anna is a French student, visiting with her sister, trying to find her place in the world. They meet by chance—a series of coincidences that feel like fate—and their lives become intertwined in ways none of them could have predicted.

Van Booy's prose is extraordinary. It's lyrical without being precious, philosophical without being heavy-handed. Sentences are short, precise, and luminous. He has a gift for capturing moments of connection, the small gestures and unspoken understandings that define relationships. The dialogue feels real, the characters vivid and alive.

The first half of the novel follows George, Jason, and Anna as they fall in love—with each other, with Athens, with the possibilities of youth. Van Booy captures the intensity of those feelings perfectly: the way love can make everything seem possible, the way a summer can feel like forever. It's intoxicating and beautiful.

Then tragedy strikes. And the novel shifts, becoming something darker, more meditative. The second half follows the survivors as they try to rebuild their lives, to make sense of loss, to find meaning in the aftermath. Van Booy doesn't offer easy answers. He shows the pain, the guilt, the struggle to move forward. But he also shows the small moments of grace that make life worth living.

The critical response has been strong. Andre Dubus III, author of ''Townie,'' writes: ''If F. Scott Fitzgerald and Marguerite Duras had had a son, he would be Simon Van Booy; this is a truly special writer who does things with abstract language that is so evocative and original your breath literally catches in your chest. Everything Beautiful Began After is a powerful meditation on the undying nature of love and the often cruel beauty of one's own fate. This is a novel you simply must read!''

The Daily Telegraph praises his ''combination of staccato sentences and tidy symbolism'' that ''transforms the finest passages into little haikus of prose.'' The New York Times notes that ''incurable romantics will savour Simon Van Booy's tender, Maupassant-like fables.''

''Everything Beautiful Began After'' is a novel for readers who believe in the power of love, who understand that beauty and pain are intertwined, who know that the most important things in life can't be explained—only felt. It's rare that reading makes you feel so connected to other people. This book does.