It doesn't get much more provocative than South Korean Young-Ha Kim's first translated work into English. In this brief, chilly novel, written in 1996, an unnamed narrator recounts a few of his more aesthetic encounters with clients who want to design their perfect suicide. Though the book's title reminds us that self-destruction can be seen as choice, the suggestion remains that until the narrator came along they hadn't perhaps realized they were seeking an exit strategy.

Eclipse , like Twilight (2005) and New Moon (2006) before it, is about Bella, who moved to the tiny town of Forks, Washington, for the start of Grade 11.

The Dark River, like The Traveler before it, pits current Traveler Gabriel Corrigan against his turncoat brother, Michael, as they battle for freedom, or human souls, or…well, you get the point. The plot is incidental (in fact, it strangely repeats the first book's) and characterization is shaky (watch out for weak men and strong women!), though there's lots of fight and flight.

These are just appetizers for the main event: the novella that gives the collection its name. They are amuse-gueules meant to give us Pendarvis's measure, which essentially falls into the McSweeney's school of thinking that everyone's a chump, and the more you think you're the exception, the chumpier you are.