SKINSWAPS

This first collection of 16 short stories by an accomplished young Slovenian author contains brief satirical allegories (“The Drummer’s Strike,” “Issac”), eerie vignettes dramatizing elusive varieties of psychic derangement (“Two” and “His mother’s voice” are notable), and several more fully developed pieces in which wry, self-deprecating characters (who sound a little like Milan Kundera’s) reflect the depletion and ennui of eastern Europe during and after the last days of communism (especially “The Taste of Blood” and “Scratches on the Back”). Superlative short fiction from an exciting new writer.