You Do Understand

Slovenian author Blatnik (Skinswaps) collects short short stories—some as brief as one sentence—that are "concentrated moments of time" that insist readers take an active role in their creation. As when viewing a Kertész photograph, readers are drawn to the shadow, toward the mystery formed by the nameless characters in their familiar yet foreign surroundings. These stories hold your attention long after you've closed the book. In "Voyeur," for instance, Blatnik's spare description of a tabletop and a woman's simple confession provides enough information for an engaged reader to echo the narrator by thinking, "What an appealing story!" The final story, "Marks," gives the greatest clue as to what Blatnik intends his stories to be. Like the piece's bookmarks, his stories are demonstrations of the infinitely possible. Reading a fully conceived story, says the narrator, is pointless.