No Call Too Small

Martens’s striking, perceptive debut collection illuminates a range of Canadians in moments of bad luck and dissatisfaction. In the title story, an unnamed Port Moody, B.C., cop, whose face has been disfigured from a dog attack, refuses to wear his prosthetic nose, costing him his relationship and earning him the nickname “The Face.” In “Capture and Release,” Martens drolly sketches a man who prides himself on having built a house on the highest point in Victoria, only to be plagued by daily greetings from a hobo camped nearby and regret for using energy-inefficient glass. In “Breaking on the Wheel,” Bob, owner of a small gas station outside of Winnipeg, attempts to lure customers with a dilapidated Ferris wheel. He forces his daughter, Dana, to continuously ride the wheel with a constant smile to show how much fun she’s having. In “How Beautiful. How Moving,” Bella’s three adult children travel from disparate parts of Canada to ransack her home for possessions while she’s in the hospital; too wrapped up in staking their claims to visit her, they cause Bella to wish she were dead. Martens’s haunting, darkly funny situations, captured in crisp, spare prose, will appeal to fans of George Saunders. [em](Apr.) [/em]