You Will Meet a Stranger Far from Home: Wonder Stories

This collection of 10 linked stories presents a curious but engrossing blend of cultures, sexualities, and gender identities in worlds where magic is both ethereal and ever-present. In “Firooz and His Brother, “ caravan trader Firooz discovers an abandoned baby and adopts him. Haider grows up with a special ability to grant Firooz a gift the elder man believed he could never have. Haider makes a delightful second appearance in “Haider and His Dog.” In “Jannicke’s Cat,” the rediscovery of an old toy cat in a world where all the cats have died and girls are no longer born sparks a chain of events that demonstrates how important women truly are. In “Liam and the Wild Fairy,” Liam—whose adolescence brought a unique hypersensitivity to smells and other stimuli—meets a disturbingly familiar supernatural creature. Jeffers (The Abode of Bliss) has an elevated writing style that fits snugly with the stories’ subtle but persistent titular wonder. (July)