Contrary to popular belief, every now and then I read books that are actually written for adults. It’s not all picture books and middle grade frolics for this girl, no sirree. I’m a serious person who reads serious literary books and I can have really super serious adult conversations with you about all of the grown up books that I read.

…So maybe that’s a stretch. I’d like to think of myself as an Oz/adult books liaison here at Lemuria, hopefully able to help you out with both kids and grown up books. And yes, usually that means that my to-read list is a little bit kid heavy, because I can just get through those faster. Every now and then however, there’s a book “from the other side” that I just can’t put down. (Saying “from the other side” makes me feel like it was written by a ghost.)

Ladies and gentlemen — Simon Van Booy is back, and he’s not a ghost. Van Booy’s newest book The Illusion of Separateness was exactly the novel that I needed to help me step eagerly back into the world of adult literature. In a story that follows several different characters and spans many decades, the book delicately intertwines the lives of people who are seemingly not connected to one another at all. There is no such thing as a coincidence in the stories that are woven here; every interaction and all of the conversations that can happen in one moment eventually wander into someone else’s narrative, tying up loose ends and answering questions we didn’t even know we had about the characters.

It is impossible for me to write about all of the characters or general plot of this book because it is so layered, and that is my excuse for the vagueness of the descriptions. This little book (only 208 pages!) reads quickly but also has some heft to it. It sits happily in the middle between beach books and books-so-heavy-they-must-be-taken-with-whiskey. I liked it lots, enough to have a blurb about it printed in the July Indie Next List pamphlet. It’s like, no big deal. Seriously, it’s nothing. Stop asking me about it! Ok fine, I’ll sign yours next time you come in.

Share