Book review: Backstories by Simon Van der Velde

4⭐
Genre ~ short stories
Publication date ~ March 25, 2021
Page Count ~ 120
Audio length ~ 2 hours 51 minutes
Narrators ~ Bobby Hirston, Catherine Dryden, Simon Van der Velde, Stacey Patterson
POV ~ 1st & 3rd

My review:

I am not one that reads many anthologies, but was happy to give it a go when the author asked to send me a kindle copy.

A collection of 14 short stories, and only a few pages each, that has the author asking “Can you find the famous person hidden in every story?” Some I could figure out, definitely not all of them, but I had a fun time trying.

Each story is unique and clever, and has the author’s spin on these individual’s lives. Some are heartbreaking and some will have you thinking, wow, they really made a name for their-self even though they grew up in trying times.

Overall, I think this would appeal to those that do enjoy biographies and solving a puzzle.

How lovely ~ This book is dedicated to the victims of violent crime, the struggle against discrimination in all its forms and making the world a better place for our children. That is why 30% of all profits will be shared between Stop Hate UK, The North East Autism Society and Friends of the Earth.

*Thanks to the author for sending me a copy of your book. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*

Add to your never ending TBR  ~ goodreads

I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read it.

Book blurb:

Can you find the famous person hidden in every story? And once found, can you understand them?

‘Ingenious idea, brilliantly executed’ – Daily Mirror

Backstories – ‘the stand-out most original book of the year’ – is a collection of stories each told from the point of view of one of my personal heroes, (or villains) back when they were just another Jew or black, or queer – back when they were nobody. Bullied, assaulted or psychologically abused, their road to redemption was never easy, and for some there would be no redemption, only a descent into evil.

These are the stories of people you know. The settings are mostly 60’s and 70’s UK and USA, the driving themes are inclusion and social justice – but the real key to these stories is that I withhold the protagonists’ identities. This means that your job is to find them – leading to that Eureka moment when you realise who’s mind you’ve been inhabiting for the last twenty minutes.

I should also add that this is a book that operates on two levels. Yes, there’s the game of identifying the mystery activist or actor, singer or murderer, but there is then the more serious business of trying to understand them. This in turn leads to the challenge of overlaying what you now know about these famous people onto what you thought you knew – not to mention the inherent challenge to your moral compass.

These are people you know, but not as you know them. Peel back the mask and see.

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