The Good Eye

In the masterful debut story collection from Gibson, characters confront eerie and unexpected situations. A psychic animal whisperer receives a house call from an old acquaintance in “Pest Control,” and a young schoolteacher is drawn to a hillside village by apparitions of the Virgin Mary in “Our Lady of the Moonlight,” which evokes the gothic vibes and fierce intelligence of Flannery O’Conner. Elsewhere, a widowed train driver and a disenchanted academic find unlikely romance on a serendipitous train journey in “Light Tricks.” Gibson also pinpoints the particularities of art and gastronomy, such as the cascading shades of blue in a painter’s color experiment in “Blue Circle” and the rich, decadent secrets of an elderly chef’s French cookbooks in “Intake.” The action is often subtle, driven by subterranean tensions, as with the couple who tour a Cretan archaeological museum in “Linear A.” Liam causes Zoe to withdraw when he criticizes the museum, claiming it’s inferior to ones in New York and London, and dismisses prehistoric matriarchal societies as primitive in comparison to warring Bronze Age civilizations. Throughout, Gibson builds impactful stories out of richly evoked settings and airtight psychological insights. The author exhibits remarkable range in this inspired and deeply accomplished work. Agent: Elyse Cheney, Cheney Agency. (May)