Girls in Trouble

Winner of the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction, Light’s (East Fifth Bliss) first collection is tight but uneven. In “Echo Sounder,” a man comes home to find his wife packing her things and tells his 11-year-old daughter, (and perhaps the reader), “I hope you realize that we’re past the point of a happy ending.” Indeed. Some stories, like “Zebra,” feel as if they don’t end at all, but just stop. On the one hand, this steals the reader’s breath with an unexpected revelation that deepens the mystery. On the other hand, it makes one wonder if the author has shirked on a promise of insight or resolution. It’s the collection’s best stories that deliver not only catharsis but complete characters. In the O. Henry Prize–winning “Three Days. A Month. More.” an abandoned 13-year-old girl asks her 11-year-old half-sister how much money she might need in the world. The young girl’s answer moves the story beyond a character’s stark vulnerability into the warm-blooded humanity apparent in Light’s most endearing work: “‘I don’t need money,’ she says. ‘I need Mama. I need you.’” (Nov.)