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A diverse, haunting and humorous collection of short fiction, Simon Van Booy offers a collection of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassion. With characters ranging from an eccentric film director, an aging ageing Cockney bodyguard, the teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, a divorced amateur magician and a Beijing street vendor, ''Tales of Accidental Genius'' takes the reader on many, incredible journeys, and conveys more in a few pages than many authors would struggle to do in a whole novel.
I'm a fan of Simon Van Booy – I read his most recent novel, [[Father's Day by Simon Van Booy|Father's Day]] whilst on holiday, and found myself moved, surprised, and impressed by his clear, unfussy prose. Whilst that was a fantastically engrossing read, his true talent shines out even more in this collection of short stories – most very short, but all inhabiting completely different characters with huge amounts of skill. It's hard not to be moved – ''The Goldfish'' almost had me in tears, a simple tale of devotion and duty, it tugs at the heartstrings without once slipping into sentimentality, and the other shorter stories manage the same thing too – evocative and moving, but never too much or too overdrawn, perfect in their quiet simplicity
