The Accidentals

While probing the fringes of the human condition, Nettel’s stories prove to be engrossing and relatable.

Booklist

Seeks out the fantastic that lurks in the interstices of everyday life . . . Nettel’s prose, brought to us in Rosalind Harvey’s punctilious translation, is precise and formalized, with a wildness held back – like a neat picket fence confining a dangerous place . . . These stories illustrate different ways a person can become an accidental in their own world

The Spectator World

Guadalupe Nettel again yet again walks into uncertain terrain with these mysterious stories. There are secrets everywhere, she says, especially in life's most intimate and familiar aspects. The Accidentals never loses its sense of things being out of joint, and Nettel explores these fears with calm and with beauty.

Mariana Enríquez, author of OUR SHARE OF NIGHT and THE DANGERS OF SMOKING IN BED

Slyly inventive and delightfully disquieting, The Accidentals is an incredible story collection filled with worlds both deceptively familiar and wondrously strange. A master of the form, Nettel draws each of her universes with great precision. Each story delivers a deliciously effective and haunting sting you'll remember long afterwards.

Gina Chung, author of SEA CHANGE and GREEN FROG

The Accidentals is the kind of book you read in a single afternoon, curled up in its cozy dream logic . . . Each story is a candle Nettel has lit for us, so that we might find each other better in these uncertain times. I will return to the light of her words again.

Jessie Ren Marshall, author of WOMEN! IN! PERIL!

I adored this collection, it spread its roots out within me. Nettel is an extraordinary writer.

Daisy Johnson, Man Booker Prize Shortlisted author of EVERYTHING UNDER and THE HOTEL

A striking and compelling collection that searches for the extraordinary within the ordinary. Each narrative veers seamlessly from the mundane to the existential; the writing is deft, and unsettling prose imbues the work with a profound resonance. I loved these stories.

Elaine Feeney, author of ALL THE GOOD THINGS YOU DESERVE

Things are never what they seem in Guadalupe Nettel's excitingly unsettling new collection. Written in spare, understated prose (Rosalind Harvey's translation is excellent), each haunting story in The Accidentals opens into something immense and Nettel's ability to convey both situational and existential dread is breathtaking. Like the colossal monkey puzzle tree that stands near its center, The Accidentals is strange, beautiful and terrifying all at once.

Laird Hunt, author of National Book Award Finalist ZORRIE

Guadalupe Nettel is at her best in these short stories, cutting through the flesh of everyday life to uncover the uncanny bones beneath it all.

Daniel Saldaña París, author of PLANES FLYING OVER A MONSTER and AMONG STRANGE VICTIMS

The eight stories in this volume validate the acclaim and testify to the successful collaboration between Nettel and her translator, Rosalind Harvey. Each story is beautifully crafted and executed . . . A writer of extraordinary range, Nettel moves easily between perspectives . . . From the unremarkable ingredients of life, Guadalupe Nettel conjures moving and magical literature.

California Review of Books

The prose throughout this collection masterfully mirrors the feeling of suddenly not knowing exactly where you are. It is matter of fact, and with the same matter-of-factness, Nettel, via Harvey’s lovely translation, guides you to unfamiliar terrain . . . I found the prose impossible to resist; it left me feeling simultaneously at home and like I was seeing something for the first time . . . What a gift this collection is.

Full Stop

There is a directness to Nettel's prose that highlights the acuity of her social and psychological observations, as she explores the gulf between our inner selves and the façade we present to others. Each of her eight narrators secretly harbors some kind of grief, longing, or loneliness that they attempt to hide from those around them.

Bookbrowse