Of This New World

In her sensitively constructed debut collection, Hyde weaves 12 short stories into an uplifting examination of fractured utopias—paradoxical and imaginary worlds that each generation has failed to establish since losing access to Paradise. The opening story “After the Beginning” offers a window into Eve’s mindset after her expulsion from Eden and sets the tone for the collection by mixing her shame-fueled resilience with moments of startling humor, and with an unexpectedly hopeful outlook in the face of ultimate loss. Roaming through historical and futuristic landscapes, the stories explore a dizzying array of settings: a “free love” hippie commune; an eco-activism outpost on an island in the Bahamas; a cross-country attempt to recover a lost child; lushly gardened, heavily gated houses in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; a Martian colony with candidates recruited to breed a new generation of humans, leaving those on Earth to scrabble in the ruins they’ve made of their world. Hyde’s luminous prose and ability to inject meaning with subtlety keeps the collection on the darkly humorous edge of melancholy. Her characters face the encroaching darkness of the world head on, yet somehow continue to see a way out, finding that space where disaster opens innumerable possibilities to carve a new world from the ruins. This collection presents an appealing selection of diverse worlds from a bright and bold new voice in fiction. (Oct.)