Minus One

In Iarovici’s beautiful collection (after American Dreaming), characters cope with unexpected deaths and loneliness. “I did not imagine this would be my life,” a woman recounts in “Jump,” a year after her husband died from an aneurysm. A single mother to a 15-year-old daughter, she tries to move on while negotiating expectations about how those in grief are supposed to behave. “Patternicity” follows two women after the loss of their husbands—one who recovers with the help of friends, family, and financial support, while the other catches a series of bad breaks. In “Small Talk,” a shy, nervous man begins dating a beautiful pathologist and surprises her with a picnic date in Central Park though she’d dressed for fine dining. In “The Reverse Peregrination of Daniela Lupu,” a family matriarch and Hungarian immigrant decides she’d rather die than be a burden, her life’s “abiding fear.” In “One Way It Could Happen,” a psychiatrist looks back at the telltale signs of addiction in her stepson, a difficult and defiant child whose biological parents didn’t teach him to respect boundaries. Iarovici’s straightforward prose establishes intimacy with the characters in their stark circumstances. Each story of devastating or uncomfortable situations is buoyed by a convincing dash of hope. (Nov.)