"Faulty Predictions: Stories," by Karin Lin-Greenberg

Karin Lin-Greenberg's “Faulty Predictions: Stories” (University of Georgia Press, 2014), a winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, was recommended to me by a friend who is a published author of short stories herself. I am glad she did recommend it, as I may not have known about it otherwise. The stories are original, unpredictable, quirky, and revealing. The characters vary widely, ranging from high school students to a talk show host to two Chinese-American grandmothers to a bus driver to a college professor to a medical student, for just some examples. Sometimes there is alcohol involved, or shoplifting, or other types of misbehavior. The characters are closely observed, and in almost every story there is a turning point, a surprise. And almost every character, whether “likeable” or not, causes readers to feel at least a moment of connection or compassion, often when we least expect to feel it. This is the author’s first book, a rewarding collection of stories, and I look forward to reading more of her fiction.