Happiness, Like Water

In this collection of 10 empathetic short stories, Okparanta chronicles life in her native Nigeria and the immigrant experience in America. Her characters mostly hail from Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, where, in “On Ohaeto Street,” a woman revises her image of her wealthy husband after a violent burglary. “Story, Story!” features a childless teacher who slowly—and chillingly—reveals her real interest in the pregnant woman she befriends. In “America,” a female science teacher has an affair with another woman and faces a choice between two different ways of life. The later stories relocate to America, mainly Boston, where, in “Shelter,” a Nigerian woman trying to free herself and her daughter from the woman’s abusive husband runs into the indifference of local social workers. In “Designs,” a Nigerian student is torn between his childhood sweetheart and his American girlfriend. And in “Tumours and Butterflies,” a high school teacher is sucked back into her abusive father’s orbit after he’s diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Okparanta skillfully introduces readers to a new world held back by old-world traditions, but a sameness to her stories, which typically involve teachers, students, same-sex relationships, and abuse, makes the focus of this collection too constricted. Agent: Jin Auh, the Wylie Agency. (Aug.)