The Accidentals

In this electrifying collection, Mexican writer Nettel (Still Born) stages sliding door moments for her characters and explores their life-altering consequences. With laser-like precision, the eight stories probe such universal aspects of the human condition as desire, loneliness, and memory. The unnamed narrator of “Life Elsewhere,” a Barcelona theater actor, obsesses over a magnificent apartment he’d tried to rent and spies on the couple who landed it instead. The husband turns out to be Xavi Mestre, a former drama school classmate of the narrator’s, and disaster ensues as the narrator wheedles his way back into Xavi’s life. “The Pink Door” centers on a Faustian bargain made by henpecked retiree Mr. Moncada, who visits a mysterious shop despite his wife’s protestations that it looks like a brothel. The proprietor, a strange woman, sells him candy that ignites in him a youthful passion, renewing his desire for his wife. Soon, however, Mr. Moncada’s insatiable consumption of the magic candy causes him to forget key details of his life. Other stories reveal the ways in which appearances can be deceiving, as in “Imprinting,” which finds the family of a young college student who reconnects with a terminally ill uncle keeping quiet about the reason for their long estrangement. In crisp and striking prose, Nettel mines the complexities of relationships, in which secrets and betrayals have the power to change everything. Readers will be wowed. (Apr.)