NEW & RECOMMENDED FICTION

Here are stories about love. Yes, love again. Love between neighbors, friends, family, and, of course, lovers. Take this most compelling of human habits and drop it into a shifting Mexican panorama. Oh, and add Carlos Fuentes as your storyteller, a spectacular translation by Edith Grossman, and bang! you have a collection of stories that are sure-footed, miraculous little alarm bells waking your senses to the pain and glory of our shared human fumbling. Stretching the supposed smallness of actually life- altering moments over the canvas of a land of frozen revolution, this one's a treasure and a lifeline. -Vanesa

It goes without saying that any novel written by Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison is worth reading, but A Mercy, Ms. Morrison's newest novel, displays her talent as a storyteller. Like Beloved, the story is set in America's past; it is the 1680s and the slave trade is in its earliest years. The country is still wild and for the most part unexplored. Daily life is based on a combination of old traditions mixed with new, cultures and classes that clash, and survival in its most elemental form. It is a time when men and women are reinventing themselves, and strangers merge and bond at a heightened pace in order to face the elements. At the heart of this story is a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter whose lifetime journey is to discover if that act was one of sacrifice or betrayal. Told in a multi-narrative perspective, Morrison distills the themes of love and hate, owned and free, and loyal and independent into complex and multi-faceted subjects. Her dream-like vision of early America weaves together to tell a story of a longing so deep that none of us will be able to turn the pages without wondering where the roots of our own soul's questioning arrive from, and of just how old our own need of belonging and searching truly is

Ireland's Anne Enright became an author to watch after winning the 2007 Man Booker Prize for her novel, The Gathering. Now, in this new collection of short stories, Enright once again captures the triumph and longing of human relationships and she seems to have perfected it in prose form. Whether it be mother and daughter, nurse and patient, or husband and wife, Enright uses imagery and flawless language to give us stories that speak to the tenderness and loss we each face in connecting with someone else. These stories illuminate the way we come together, break apart, and ultimately find our own inner strength in order to hold intimacy. For fans of Alice Munro or Amy Bloom, here is a collection of stories that speak to the complications and truth of opening one's heart and welcoming another. -SMC