3 minute read
NEW AND SELECTED STORIES by Cristina Rivera Garza; trans. by Sarah Booker, Francisca González Arias, Lisa Dillman, Cristina Rivera Garza & Alex Ross
new and selected stories
in the gravitational presence of wealth. Reed does a masterful job of complicating his characters’ motivations. Does Marina feel something special for Martin, or is she just dissatisfied with Oleg? Can Martin’s interests in Marina be uncoupled from his interest in Oleg’s art collection? To what extent is Martin’s love of painters like Malevich influenced by his knowledge of the insane value that the art market places on Malevich’s work? Are Oleg’s reformist ambitions motivated by a sincere regret about the nation-ruining side effects of his ruthless accumulation of wealth, or is he just nostalgic for the “wild years” when he could profit from his visions unencumbered by weak constraints like guilt?
Richly textured, compulsively readable, and brilliant throughout.
ONCE A THIEF
Reich, Christopher Mullholland Books (352 pp.) $28.00 | April 5, 2022 978-0-316-45609-8
Simon Riske drives again but not as fast. Plying his ostensible trade as a restorer of sexy European sports cars, freelance spy Riske is in California shepherding a classic Ferrari through an auction. The car sells for $102 million, a record, and everyone is happy. Well, not everyone. The restoration did not include a critical piece of original equipment, for the very good reason that the piece was lost. But suddenly the buyer, Sylvie Bettencourt, receives news that the piece does exist, and she demands Riske find it and complete the restoration. Of course it’s not that easy. Riske and his team had already scoured the mechanical world for the piece, and though they resume the search, there are no new leads. As a sidebar to the search for the gearbox, Riske researched Bettencourt and learned she was a major player in the process of laundering the fortunes of Russian oligarchs. Then Bettencourt blackmails Riske into helping her steal back some money she claims her superior has taken, and Riske becomes a mole spying on Bettencourt. In a further plot development, Carl Bildt, a Danish banker who managed the accounts Bettencourt services, is murdered, and his daughter Anna undertakes to find the killers. With Riske unraveling the oligarchical knot from the Bettencourt end and Anna pursuing her father’s killers, the extent of the laundering scheme is revealed. But these are Russian fortunes, and there is the obligatory presence of hulking violent enforcers, callous ultrarich misogynists, and even a teasing pirouette by Novichok, a nerve agent. Riske is a raffish rogue, ready to ride or preferably drive a Ferrari in whatever quixotic enterprise presents itself, but in this adventure he is somewhat subdued—still irresistible, still a seasoned street fighter, but somehow less visceral. Intricately plotted, the novel reaches a climax that is somewhat surprising yet disappointing, as if the magician had pulled a mouse from his hat.
Riske is still Riske, and the automotive world is still the better for it.
NEW AND SELECTED STORIES
Rivera Garza, Cristina Trans. by Sarah Booker, Francisca González Arias, Lisa Dillman, Cristina Rivera Garza & Alex Ross Dorothy (280 pp.) $16.00 paper | April 1, 2022 978-1-948980-09-8
Tales from the most surreal of shadowlands.
In novels like The Iliac Crest (2017) and The Taiga Syndrome (2018), Mexican author Rivera Garza has displayed an affinity for the mysterious: randomly encountered shadowy strangers and odd settings simultaneously out of place and out of time. This new collection of short fiction, which contains stories dating back to the 1980s along with some new ones, thankfully finds the author on familiar ground; it proves that nobody does quiet menace quite like her. In “City of Men,” a reporter finds herself in the titular metropolis, having been assigned by her editor to
