Fortune Smiles

Adam Johnson · b. 1967 · USA

Why it matters

Six stories send a North Korean defector adrift in Seoul, a Stasi archivist confronting his surveillance state's ruins, and a father immersing his dead wife's memory in virtual reality, among other extremities of displacement and grief. Johnson's National Book Award-winning collection extends The Orphan Master's Son's unflinching, darkly comic gaze.

At a glance

Six tonally distinct stories range widely in setting and technique, though each reads clearly on its own.