Darkness

Subtle indicators of identity loom large in this compassionate and eloquent collection from Mukherjee (The Tree Bride), first published in 1985. To the outside world, the title character in “Angela” is a wise and loving confidant, but her seeming equanimity masks a life of pain and hardship. Vinita, the heroine of “Visitors,” trades a lively social life in her native Calcutta for ordered affluent domesticity in New Jersey. In “Hindus,” a wealthy New York sophisticate’s break from some aspects of Indian identity leaves him adrift, a “blind and groping conquistador who had come to the new world too late.” The teen narrator of “Saints” hangs out with a friend from a nearby trailer park in Upstate New York, where his mother works in admissions for a college and dates a janitor named Wayne, who calls himself a “mopologist” (“It’s so corny,” the narrator recounts, “but every time Wayne uses that word, Mom gives him a tinkly, supportive laugh”). Throughout, Mukherjee excels at capturing the details and rhythms of her characters’ everyday lives, all of whom share a common dilemma. As the title character in “The Father” muses: “A dozen times a day he made these small trade-offs between new world reasonableness and old-world beliefs.” This is a great gift to readers. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Feb.)