In These Stories, Everyone Wants to Be Somewhere Else

THE FARAWAY WORLD, by Patricia Engel

“Have you learnt that yesterday a person stopped me on the road as a result of he thought I used to be American?” says Florencia, a personality in Patricia Engel’s wistful, understated second assortment of tales. “He stated I had the identical title as of certainly one of Italy’s biggest cities. He stated it was probably the most lovely locations in all of Europe, stuffed with historical past and majesty. He stated it suited me.”

That Florencia won’t ever go to Italy, that she is going to by no means go away Cuba shouldn’t be the purpose. What she desires is for her less-than-attentive husband to like her, and so she tries to impress him by cloaking herself within the glamour of distant nations; on the identical time, her husband indulges in his personal fantasy life, worshiping a younger girl he drives at no cost in his taxi. She has her eye on a unique prize: the possibility to maneuver to a magical metropolis referred to as San Diego.

Whether or not these dense tales are set in Cuba, Colombia or the US, all of the characters have astonishingly complicated relationships to locations they’ve by no means seen or haven’t been to in a few years, since they emigrated to a different place. Therefore the title, “The Faraway World.”

In “The Guide of Saints,” a younger Colombian girl longs for Medellín, her hometown, whereas trapped in an organized American marriage to a person who limits her entry to cash and associates. In “Campoamor,” a novelist flits between girlfriends and pretends to jot down a ebook whereas fearing an impending transfer from Havana to Miami, the place the reality about his life could also be revealed.

The richest, most heartbreaking tales come on the finish of the gathering. In “Libélula”, a home employee addresses her employer, a fellow Colombian, summoning the intimacies and degradations she has been compelled to endure whereas working a family in America. Her duties included comforting a rich housewife after a miscarriage by sleeping in her mattress — “You’ll pay me further, you stated, and I instructed you there was no want” — and masking up her employer’s husband’s sexual advances, in addition to watching cooking specials on TV so she will develop her repertoire past beans and rice; her employer calls this “peasant meals.”

Lastly she escapes, ready for a day when her employer is just too drunk to note. What makes this story so transferring is how a lot love this girl reveals her employer, how a lot endurance and understanding. The impact is devastating and unforgettable, an emotional wallop in fewer than 16 pages.

One other standout is “Aguacero,” the ultimate story, a few younger girl who has been sexually assaulted by her boyfriend. When she meets Juan, who’s 50, on the sidewalk in Manhattan, he instantly acknowledges that Sara — not her actual title, only one she provides him — is from Bogotá. (The giveaway: She makes use of her cigarette to hail a taxi.)

Juan can also be Colombian. After they develop a friendship, he reveals that he fled Colombia after being kidnapped. Although Sara refuses to share her crippling melancholy and worry of leaving her house, she does start to fulfill Juan for espresso or a glass of wine. In small methods, these broken, cautious strangers discover solace in one another. Years later, Sara appears to be like again: “What stayed with me most was when Juan instructed me that although folks referred to as him courageous for having endured his imprisonment, he thought of himself a coward as a result of he hadn’t had the braveness to attempt to escape.”

“The Faraway World” is a group in regards to the Latin American diaspora, but it surely’s additionally one which proves how Engel, like certainly one of her characters, is able to noticing that between any two folks “a glance reveals greater than a fingerprint.”

Leigh Newman’s newest ebook is a narrative assortment, “No person Will get Out Alive.”

THE FARAWAY WORLD | By Patricia Engel | 224 pp. | Avid Reader Press | $26