Three new short story collections offer readers a journey into the unsettling and the strange, where ordinary events twist into the bizarre and emotions run deep beneath serene surfaces.
Sail Away Land by Ben Pester
Sail Away Land by Ben Pester (Granta £14.99, 208pp) is now available. There is a thread of uneasy emotion seaming its way through the lives of the characters in Pester's stories. Like his debut novel, the much-acclaimed The Expansion Project, weirdness and wonder jostle his protagonists. They find themselves at parties where the entrance to the festivities is through a door in the back of a colleague's head, interacting with a family who are being haunted by the ghost of the narrator's sister, who may not be dead, or dealing with the mysterious returns of stepfathers to surprised, but accepting, families.
These unsettling stories often begin with ordinary events, then veer into the odd. They vibrate with the low hum of an anxiety dream as difficult-to-describe feelings congregate, but where things are also 'so beautiful and crazy and streaming with imagination'.
The Fallen Trees Are Also The Forest by Alejandra Kamiya
The Fallen Trees Are Also The Forest by Alejandra Kamiya (Pushkin Press £12.99, 160pp) is available now. Elegant and enigmatic, these 12 haunting stories are inspired by the dual heritage of Japanese-Argentine writer Kamiya. Beautifully translated by Daniel Hahn, they shimmer with memories, secrets and disquieting feelings. The prose is as clear and cool as spring water, but under the surface there is a churn of emotion.
The opening story sets the mood for the collection as a wife shops for and prepares a perfect breakfast, the accumulation of precise detail slowly creating a sense of unease. That is echoed in the final tale, As Brief As Clover, as a mother and toddler watch a storm, the windows of their house 'just yellow squares trembling'.
The Typing Lady by Ruth Ozeki
The Typing Lady and other fictions by Ruth Ozeki (Canongate £18.99, 336pp) is now available. Sparky, playful, and lit with Ozeki's signature compassion, this collection of tales is as much about the art of storytelling and the role of the writer as about the experiences and emotions of her fascinating characters.
In Feelings, a woman recalls 'the voluptuous delirium of making things up' and her regret at not recognising another's pain. The Anthropologist's Kid remembers how badly he behaved with a classmate in The Peabody Museum of Natural History, while Leafblower unspools the complicated situation between a broke student, a woman with dementia and her elderly husband.
