In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.

Mueenuddin, Daniyal (author).

Mueenuddin’s story collection is a remarkably confident debut. Although the eight stories are broadly linked by a common Pakistani community, the narratives are diverse in both content and approach. The first stories—written in an unsparing, declarative style—follow the poorer members of the feudal network. “Nawabdin Electrician,” selected by Salman Rushdie for the newest Best American Short Stories anthology, is particularly severe in its worldview, though its protagonist is warm, even jovial. When Mueenuddin turns his attention to the wealthy—the gulf between rich and poor is starkly dramatized—his prose grows more indulgent, especially in the stories “Our Lady of Paris” and “Lily.” Although the latter develops slowly, with dialogue and scenes that strain to come off the page, the libertine turned wife’s reflections on her husband are startling and familiar and deeply sad: “She considered the tone in which Murad had told the aphorism about the beginning and the ending of love—exposed, hardened, ironic—a tone that couples settle into when they are broken and at odds forever, but bound.”