'She believed it was a gift to never truly know the self. We are not who we think we are, nor how others see us. Long before death, we die a thousand times at the hands of a definition.'In his first book of short stories since Love Begins in Winter, for which he won the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award, bestselling author Simon Van Booy offers a collection highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassion. Through characters including an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguard, a teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, a divorced amateur magician from New Jersey and a Beijing street vendor who becomes an overnight billionaire, Tales of Accidental Genius contemplates individuals from different cultures, races - rich and poor, young and old - and reveals how faith and yearning for connection helps us all transcend darkness of fear and misfortune.