A Tale of Two Mice

Novelist Simon Van Booy tells the touching true story of how his pet mice inspired his newest novel, Sipsworth.

- SIMON VAN BOOY

People often ask at book signings how I choose what to write about. Well, the truth is that I don't choose. I get chosen by a subject or a character or a story with such emotional force, that I'm not able to write anything else. The last two novels I've written, The Presence of Absence and Sipsworth, were both inspired by my relationship with animals, and it's certainly true that while I was working on them, there was no other story I was remotely interested in, or perhaps even capable of, telling.

It all started after I read an essay by John Berger about mice. It was very short, just a few pages, but it made me think about these tiny animals in a completely new way. The next week, on my way home from work, I popped into a pet store to look at some. I couldn't get them out of my mind!

When I asked my wife how she felt about getting a pet mouse, she laughed, then her expression changed to one of horror. "You're not serious?"

Of course, there was no rational explanation. I was feeling love for a pet I didn't even have yet. When the pandemic started a few months later, we talked it over again and my wife agreed. It would be nice to have some nonhuman company in the house during lockdown.