A Stranger in This World

A Stranger in This World Kevin Canty (Doubleday, $20) This book is a darkly nuanced, exquisite first collection of stories by a young author whose genial jacket photo belies his abject take on the human condition. Writing about death, drinking, and disease, Canty navigates the many gulfs and eddies of skewed relationships with the unflinching concentration of a bystander at an accident site who can't stop looking. While Canty lays on his characters' bad luck and faulty judgment a bit thick at times, two of these 10 stories show glimmers of hope and promise. Not recommended, however, for lovers of the bittersweet, the heartwarming, or the uplifting. A -MM