Blank Pages: And Other Stories

The 12 stories in this poignant, understated collection by Irish author MacLaverty (Lamb) direct a keen and compassionate eye toward characters who are approaching death. The dreamy “Glasshouses” follows an unnamed old man who loses track of his grandchildren as they visit a large conservatory divided into various climate zones. He wanders alone and afraid, and possibly suffers a heart attack while “searching throughout the world” for the children he fears may have come to harm. In the touching “Sounds and Sweet Airs,” an elderly couple takes a stormy ferry ride from Ireland to Scotland, during which they strike up a friendship with a young harp-toting woman named Lisa Boyd. Lisa brought the harp to play for her invalid father in Scotland, and after the couple persuades her to play it on board, it seems to calm both the sea and the anxious people on board. MacLaverty’s tour de force is the heartbreaking “The End of Days: Vienna 1918,” in which artist Egon Schiele and his pregnant wife are felled by influenza, with parallels to a more recent pandemic both clear and devastating. MacLaverty’s tales come across as deceptively light at first, but they leave a lasting impression. (Jan.)