All That Is Left Is All That Matters

This collection from Slouka (Brewster) features variations on the theme of encroaching death in 15 disquieting, sharply compressed short stories. Sometimes that feared death is that of the hero, as in “Dominion,” in which a retired journalist is haunted by the cries of coyotes and the animals they kill. Sometimes it is that of an acquaintance, such as the little girl who waited for her school bus—and died in an accident—near the garden grown by the narrator of “Russian Mammoths.” Frequently, it is the feared demise of a father or a son: fathers and sons in Slouka’s world are enmeshed, trying desperately to protect each other, and sometimes succeeding. Even more often, it is the death or near-death of an animal, like the rabbit the Czech father of one narrator has to kill for food just before his relatives are taken away by the Nazis (“The Hare’s Mask”); the giant fish a boy catches on summer vacation (“Justice”); or the beloved pet dog who, in the haunting and surreal “Dog,” starts growing razor blades all over its body, so that to pet it is to risk agonizing injury. Even the most seemingly casual of these tales vibrate with danger, and together, they create the sense of a world where unendurable loss is just one misplaced footstep away. (June)