Nadirs

M ller, whose The Land of the Green Plums won the 1998 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, turns a dark and steady eye on Communist Romania in her first collection, published in Romania in 1982 and in Germany two years later. Newly translated into English as part of the University of Nebraska's European Women Writers Series, these tales are based on M ller's experience growing up in the German-speaking region of Banat. The 15 stories are melodious but sober in tone, echoing an overwhelmingly oppressive social atmosphere. It's bluntly stated that boys are injured in local factories and mothers' lives are unrelentingly harsh; meanwhile, M ller imbues a trip to the barber or a ride on the intervillage bus with colorful, surreal twists. Shaky sexual initiations become sonorous incantations. In ""The Funeral Sermon,"" M ller recreates the dissociative chaos of a child at her father's funeral. She hears of his atrocious war crimes and of his predatory sexuality, but it's unclear whether the girl is a reliable narrator, or even if she's awake. The substantial title story also explores a child's perceptions of her family and environment, related in spasmodic bursts of poetic clarity: ""The frost flowers devour their own leaves, they have faces like milky blind eyes."" This is followed by childish petulance: ""When I grow up I'll cook frost flowers, I'll speak during meals, and I'll drink water after every bite."" Most of these impressionistic pieces are bursting with breathtaking, earthy details: a mother washes her toddler in the tub with a pair of panties; a girl explores her sexuality, observing that ""my silky gray skirt is a silent bell""; vivid colors saturate farm animals; and family dynamics suggest both otherworldly tethers and mundane brutalities. (Oct.)