Simon Van Booy has written a new book.
Saying it like that is accurate, but also completely incomplete.
Instead, one could say that Mr. Van Booy, a prolific, award-winning author and frequent South Fork visitor, has written his first linear narrative. One could say he's followed a nugget of advice that he often quotes to his own writing students, based on a saying by Vladimir Nabokov: Write "on the surface of the present."
In "Sipsworth," which hits shelves at BookHampton, Canio's, and other bookshops both independent and national on May 7, a reader will spend a lot of time in a cottage with a reclusive octogenarian and her unexpected new friend, a mouse.
"It's very different" from his other stories, Mr. Van Booy explained over French fries, way too much ketchup, and a dessert of blueberry pie at John Papas Cafe, during a recent extended stay in Springs to mind a friend's house.
"There are no flashbacks or jumps in time. It just goes three weeks in a person's life. There are only four characters, and only one of them is a main character. The reader spends a lot of time in a sitting room with the main character. When you're writing in one place without flashbacks, without a lot of characters, every detail has to be perfect because it will otherwise break the spell. I found it really hard, actually."
By this point, he's actually lost two. There was Tyresius, who lived only eight months after Mr. Van Booy rescued him from a feeder tank in a pet shop. They ultimately went on a cross-country trip together, with Mr. Van Booy giving him regular drops of albuterol for his breathing condition and sneaking him into hotel rooms every night "in my only good, bespoke suit, so that nobody would think I'm smuggling a mouse."
And then there was mouse number two, Sipsworth, an intelligent, sweet, and kind companion who lived longer. The photographs prove he could actually smile. He died last year.
"If you keep a mouse in its home, feed it, water it, clean the tank, and just leave it there, it will be what you imagine a pet mouse is -- a thumb-sized lump moving around on a wheel and eating," Mr. Van Booy said. "But if you slowly become friends with it, take it out, give it fun, play hide-and-seek, your mouse's character will come out in a way that you can't imagine, just like a dog or a cat."
People misunderstand mice, in his opinion, because of the health risks they can pose when they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. But this world belongs to humans and all other animals, too, including mice.
"We just need to learn to mouse-proof things . . . so we can live in harmony with nature," Mr. Van Booy said. "I think a lot of people are interested in that idea, living in harmony with nature rather than trying to control it. Did you know over 100 million mice are used in medical research a year? So the chance is that someone you love is alive today because of medicines that we have because of mice. Every mouse that dies in medical research, over 100 million a year, is capable of giving and receiving love. That's a lot of sacrifice."
The mouse in his new novel is based on both Tyresius and Sipsworth. And Helen Cartwright, the human protagonist in "Sipsworth" who reluctantly rescues the mouse from the elements in a small English village, is influenced by a few different women.
One of them is Barbara Wersba of North Haven, the publisher who took an interest in his writing after seeing Mr. Van Booy's story in The Star. The other is his own grandmother, Marie, who emigrated to Europe from Jamaica when his mother was about 6 or 7 years old. He said she "was a very tough woman. She ran away with three kids from an abusive husband and started a whole new life in a new country." A third influence is Kathleen Sexton, who is the captain of the Gotham Volunteer Ambulance Corps, on which Mr. Van Booy has served in New York City since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. "She has devoted her entire life to E.M.S. [emergency medical service]. She's saved dozens and dozens of people's lives over the years."
"Sipsworth" is different not only from Mr. Van Booy's previous novels, but from a lot of other literary fiction, too. "There are a lot of works that are quite scary," he said. "They show us the horrible world we potentially could have in the future, but I actually think the world is better than it has ever been. That's not an opinion. That's based on data."
Halfway through the book, there's a revelation that will come as a surprise (read it yourself -- no spoilers here). All that's to be said about the ending here, too, is that it's a happy one.
And there are lessons to be learned in it. "We're moving into a new age where how we've treated animals in the past is no longer permissible," the author said. "Because if we can prevent suffering, why not? Why not prevent it?"
Also, he said, "I want this book to encourage society to rethink stereotypes around women and aging. You see an elderly person and often they're maybe not working anymore, they may be retired, but there is a wealth of wisdom that we don't value as much as we could. . . . And loneliness is really an epidemic, especially with the elderly community. Your body is suffering and people you love are dying. Aging is really hard, especially for people without family. So maybe we also think about how we can give more support to elderly communities."
"Sipsworth" is "storytelling at its absolute finest," wrote Marc Levy, author of "All Those Things We Never Said," in words of advance praise for the new book. Christina Baker Kline, the New York Times best-selling author of "Orphan Train," called it "a slim, sparkling jewel of a novel." Indeed, it has already been optioned for film, with the rights going to Carolyn Marks Blackwood and Gabrielle Tana, producers of "Philomena" (starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan) and "The Duchess" (with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes), among others.
In addition to releasing "Sipsworth" on May 7, Mr. Van Booy, a Brit who grew up in Wales who once dreamed of playing professional rugby, will once again teach a virtual summer writing workshop. There will be instructional lectures, guest speakers, one-on-one coaching, and group listening and critique time. At the end of it, according to the program description, participants "should feel fully confident in their writing process, have developed new skills and techniques for writing fiction, and have a polished story or first chapter, which should be the best work they have ever done."
That's a big promise, but if anyone can deliver on it, it's Mr. Van Booy.
