Fortune Smiles: Stories

"Adam Johnson, who won the Pulitzer for his novel The Orphan Master’s Son returns to North Korea for the title story in his new collection, in which he reveals the surprising culture shock as two North Korean defectors try to adjust to Seoul’s “bewildering nature.” “Nirvana” revolves around a high-tech genius whose talks via iProjector to an assassinated president give him comfort when he can’t help his temporarily paralyzed wife. In these stories and others, about a UPS driver navigating the post-Katrina universe with his toddler son or an ex-Stasi torturer meeting his doom, Johnson shows astonishing empathy and inventiveness."