Other Kinds

In the nine short, satisfying stories of this fluid debut collection from Nice, strained moments of intimacy and misunderstandings appear along with the clipped prose, which is at times lyrical and, at others, sobering and stark. Often, as in “Flat Land,” “Ice Floe,” and “Wet Leaves,” boys from mining families, whose fathers “said things that sounded like scripture, like it had all been thought about long and hard and decided upon,” end up liking girls who come from different, warmer worlds. The results are conversations under streetlights and over beers that usually lead to unreturned phone calls and wishes for what wasn’t meant to be. While each brief story flows into the next, it can be difficult to remember which was which or what really happened. Yet, although the long-term resonance of plot is thin, the immediacy of the words and images make for reading that is visceral and alive with the smell of rain and the pulse of silence. (Nov.)