An Arrangement of Light - review - Nicole Krauss

In an unnamed country, an unnamed protagonist becomes an assistant to an unnamed but highly respected landscape architect. While writing in her typically lucid prose, Krauss (The History of Love, Great House) drapes her well-crafted new short story, An Arrangement of Light, in ambiguity and a floating sense of dread. There’s a dark secret at the heart of the architect’s beautiful public park, but rather than pit man against nature, Krauss proposes that the two are bonded by their similar capacities for cruelty. B+