Detonator

In this perceptive collection, Mountford (The Dismal Science) unearths the inner struggles of characters caught in the middle of political and private battles. In “One More Night Between the Walls,” the child of diplomats in Sri Lanka witnesses the strain on his parent’s marriage over the course of a calamitous New Year’s Eve party, as the threat of civil war mounts. “Mr. McNamara’s Suit” concerns the moral dilemma of a Vietnamese American laundry owner who discovers his best client is Robert McNamara, the former secretary of defense and architect of the Vietnam War. The standout “Pay Attention” follows a suburban woman’s experiments with sadomasochism to distract herself from outrage and fear over the election of Donald Trump, only to find hope in an unlikely romance with her affectionate torturer. In the title story, a dissolute man has a stroke while having sex with his mistress on Halloween, after which he faces his wife at the hospital. Mountford is an expert at locating what makes his characters tick and how they handle crises, as with the title story’s married couple, struck “by old wounds... forever confused and looking in the wrong direction.” There’s plenty of heat in this wide-ranging volume. Agent: Ayesha Pande, Pande Literary. (Sept.)