The Week

IN THE GLOAMING Alice Elliott Dark (Simon & Schuster, $23) ''The gloaming'' is a Scottish term for the time of day when twilight changes to night, and each of these 10 elegant love stories captures such a dark, transformative moment. In the delicate yet wrenching title piece (already filmed twice and included in The Best American Short Stories of the Century), a mother bonds with her 33-year-old son for the first time -- feeling ''like a girl with a crush'' as he lies in bed dying of AIDS. While melodrama mars some tales, Dark's more typical fare -- searing stories of faithless husbands, rivalrous sisters, and a classic about a middle-aged rogue who learns that his much younger girlfriend might be his daughter -- showcases her exquisite use of irony. A-

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