Hotel of the Saints

The best-selling author of ”Stones From the River” returns with her first collection of short stories Hotel of the Saints, in more than a decade. These are little crystals of human interaction, some brittle and cool, others throbbing with light. In ”Moonwalkers,” an old man receives the heart of a 27-year-old future librarian and can’t stop mourning her. In ”Freitod,” a German woman serenely plots her suicide, a dive into the Sea of Cortés, an undesperate act that feels both hopeful and empowered. The weaker stories are bloated with airy-fairy fantasizing, like the unfortunately titled ”Stolen Chocolates.” But at her best, Ursula Hegi paints fine portraits of the wildly individual moments when people find faith.