WHAT’S NEXT?

This anthology of stories, edited by Skeeter, illuminates the aftermath of life-changing events.

This book’s 25 stories, by as many authors, follow a diverse cast experiencing changes brought about by internal and external forces. In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s “Doors,” Preeti heads right back to Berkeley after she and Deepak wed. The two live together peacefully and accept each other’s differences, like Preeti’s preference for locking the door when she’s in the bathroom. Deepak’s old friend Raj, and his callous disregard for privacy, however, throws off the couple’s balance. In Charles Johnson’s “Night Shift,” Lucas works at a hospital at the height of the Covid pandemic. When someone he knows rolls into the hospital with a gunshot wound, Lucas must make a decision that could threaten the career he’s fought hard to achieve. Many of the tales revolve around families or relationships, encompassing struggling marriages, sometimes-vexing relatives, and loved ones surviving a pandemic. There’s diversity not only among the authors and their characters, but among the stories as well; they showcase a variety of genres, including romance, melodrama, comedy, and even a hint of fantasy. Brenda Peynado takes readers to an exceptionally grim dystopia in her outstanding “The Touches,” in which individuals steer clear of the “dirty,” disease-riddled corporeal world in favor of the “clean” virtual-reality alternative. As the story progresses, the narrator, Salipa, counts off the mere four times she’s made physical contact with others.

The editor, who also contributes a story of her own, gathers an extraordinary collection of tales, rich with relatable character portraits that the authors tackle in numerous ways; several stories draw in readers with second-person narrations. In the case of Donna Miscolta’s “Mother, Mother, Mother, Mother Earth,” the English alphabet helps relay the journey of a mother raising her daughter (“M is for make-believe we are fine”). Even the more extreme scenarios manage to hit home: In Clarence Major’s “Innocence,” the narrator witnesses a double murder but seems more perturbed by the apparent confirmation that a lover has been unfaithful. While this collection has its share of standouts, there’s simply no lull in the run of stories. They’re teeming with compelling figures, like Jake in Joseph Bruchac’s “Vision,” an Indigenous man who’s a former special forces soldier and an aspiring novelist. There are also delightfully lighthearted turns; in Joanna Scott’s “Teardrop,” a woman spends a memorable day with her 6-year-old niece, Jody, whose innocent and frankly hilarious vandalism leads to disastrous results. The prose throughout is consistently sound: As Shannon Sanders (“The Good, Good Men”) writes, “Lee had met their father at a District jazz lounge that no longer existed, a place Miles had long imagined as dark and deliciously moody like the man himself, with threads of light piano melody curling through the air between sets.” Such passages electrify narratives that readers will surely savor.

An impressive, dynamic host of spectacular stories filled with engaging characters.