The Soviet Circus Comes to Havana

Virgil Surezs latest short story collectionhis first in more than two decadesis subversive and emotionally piercing. A man whose yard is plagued by armadillos, a pair of boys who torment scorpions with gasoline fires, and a fathers best friend wasting away with an illness as a son watches the deterioration with fascination and disgustthese are just a few of the characters in these seventeen stories that reveal a dark, satiric view of the human condition thats somehow ferocious and, at times, funny. Shades of Denis Johnson and George Saunders run throughout this potent volume of new stories. Whether hes writing about Havana, Miami, or other less exotic locales, Surez has the ironic distance of an outsider while capturing the details only insiders know. The Soviet Circus Comes to Havana and Other Stories is an apt addition to the world of short fiction.