cover image Tierra: Contemporary Short Stories of New Mexico

Tierra: Contemporary Short Stories of New Mexico

. Cinco Puntos Press, $12.95 (258pp) ISBN 978-0-938317-09-8

These 25 eminently readable stories by New Mexicans, many anthologized for the first time, reflect the heterogeneity of the state and its residents; alike only in that each expresses a unique response to the land, they evoke a definite sense of place. The best-known contributor here is mystery writer Tony Hillerman; in his ``Replacement,'' a Native American soldier in WW II France remembers summer in Pottawatomie County. A refugee from the city is involved in a sordid squabble over the harvest from an apple tree on the property he rents in Robert Granat's ``My Apples.'' Among other standouts are Terry Boren's ``Alba in Directed Light,'' a futuristic, bleak romance; Anaya's ( Bless Me, Ultima ) own ``Iliana of the Pleasure Dreams,'' about a peasant couple learning to love each other; and a clas sic western about a youth earning the respect of men, Marc Simmons's ``The Deputy.'' Lamentably, Gustavo Sainz's ``Paisaje de Fogon'' appears in Spanish without translation. (Oct.)