Let the Old Dreams Die
In Lindqvist&'s commendable first short-fiction collection, people often are not what they seem, usually to a horrifying degree. The Border tells of a customs agent whose relationship with a suspected smuggler uncovers extraordinary truths about the agent&'s heritage. The celebrities whom a paparazzo photographer thinks he is snapping in Itsy Bitsy reveal pedigrees that are as eerie as they are inexplicable. A drowning victim who dies but is resuscitated in Eternal/Love comes back to his lover as something else, although still in human form. In addition to these tales of deceptive identities and their unsettling natures, the book features Final Processing, a sequel to Handling the Undead, and the title tale, a sequel to Let the Right One In that riffs poignantly on that novel&'s romantic relationship between a young boy and a vampire girl. Segerberg&'s translation is murky in places, but the originality of Lindqvist&'s ideas shines through. (Oct.)