Other Evolutions

The fascinating if disjointed debut novel from short story writer Garcia (The Girl Who Cried Diamonds) charts the life of Alma Ata, a young Jewish Mexican woman living in Ottawa. Told in the first person through a collection of fragmentary flashbacks, the narrative begins with adult Alma headed to a party, then jarringly shifts to her as a child at her grandmother’s funeral. After a hateful, scissor-wielding aunt attacks her, Alma runs away—right into teenage neighbor Oliver Jentsch, who shows her a grotesque perpetual-motion machine in the shape of a human hand crafted by his mysterious mother. Alma then switches gears again to introduce her older sister, Marnie, who, unlike Alma, is white-passing. Marnie invites a now 14-year-old Alma to visit her at college in Montreal but insists Alma not reveal that they’re siblings. Devastated, Alma seeks out Oliver and the pair get into a car crash in which Oliver dies and Alma loses an arm. Angry and depressed, she drops out of high school. Meanwhile, Oliver’s mother copes with grief by crafting a new, much stranger invention. The prose is lovely, and Garcia has a knack for capturing the surreality of loss, but the many splintering plotlines raise more questions than they answer. There’s lots here to hold readers’ interest, but it’s a challenge to sort through. (Oct.)