Southerly

Argentine writer Consiglio (Fate) explores the randomness of life in this eclectic collection. An estate agent analyzes chess games with his friend in the title story, a group of young students find a place to blow off steam in “The Terrace,” and “The Complexities of Matter” follows a Colombian woman as she tries to make a life for herself. There is little in the way of plot, but the stories can be understood according to the terms of “Correspondence” protagonist Mariela: “I like to think there are hidden connections in life. Any act, for reasons unknown, can be connected to another act.” Most of the stories include a fulcrum point—a car crash, a bad fall, an explosion—that opens a new way for a character to evaluate their life. In “Travel, Travel” and “The Running Man,” those paths become literal as characters traverse the countryside in search of a way home. Consiglio is less successful when employing shock value—he describes a bullet “obliterating” a woman’s head in “Fire”—than in locating his characters’ quiet interiority. Though uneven, this has plenty of glimmering moments. (May)