Lovers on All Saints’ Day
By Juan Gabriel Vasquez
Translated from the Spanish by Ann Maclean
(Riverhead Books)

The seven short stories in this collection by Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez are set primarily in Belgium and France. These classically told tales reflect a sense of displacement and the impossibility of communication, whether between intimates or strangers. A lonely veterinarian looking for a one-night stand, an adulterous pregnant woman who falls for a magician, a hunting party gone terrible awry—each one’s story is written with exquisite restraint and a sharp eye for detail, as captured by Anne McLean’s shimmering translation.