I absolutely loved Still Born so was thrilled to have the opportunity to read this short story collection by my favourite Mexican writer whilst in Mexico recently. I savoured these stores, reading one per day throughout my trip and they provided a moment of perfect literary escapism each day.

I just love how Nettel (and Rosalind Harvey translating) describe people, family dynamics and uncover the extraordinary within the mundane. I keep thinking about several of the stories now, what excellent storytelling to deliver such reader investment within the space of a few pages. A slim book that delivers more to the reader than its size would suggest. I’ve no doubt I’ll return to these stories in the future. Loved.

One of the best short story collections I've read. These stories were sometimes eerie and some touched on political themes. They were all beautifully written and I look forward to reading more from this author

I am really enjoying exploring more short stories at present and this collection was very interesting - and like life didn't always go where you'd expect, or have satisfying endings.
Some of the stories were outright unsettling but all were incredible visual and whatever the setting I always 'saw' them as much as read them.

The translations were incredible and I often forgot that these stories weren't originally written in English - as is so often the case with Harvey's translations. I'm looking forward to reading more from Nettel now too.

The Accidental is a set of stories which firmly feel like they belong together, without going to painful lengths to make it obvious to the reader why. Family, or absence of family, is the strongest thread throughout but beyond that it becomes pleasingly difficult to pinpoint why these slot into place so well as a collection. Each piece has a distinct, clear voice and manages to feel contemporary and timeless simultaneously. Enough references - to the pandemic or, fleetingly, to uses of technology - are made to root the tales firmly in the modern experience yet the stories themselves feel universal.

This was a pleasure to read and the most I’ve enjoyed a collection of contemporary short stories for some while.

A set of eerie and thought provoking short stories within which Nettel shows herself to be a master of the uneasy and unsettling.

My usual complaint with short story collections is that they either have a couple of stand out stories and the rest are a take it or leave it, or the protagonists all sound so similar it feels like it should have been written as one longer novella. Nettel, however, completely mastered the art of threading the stories together thematically whilst offering them each a distinctness and quality that allowed them to stand alone too.

Rooting many of her stories in realities with which we should be familiar (pandemics, housing blocks, hospitals), Nettel stretches and distorts her protagonists experiences to develop a quality of unreality, usually accompanied by a large amount of disconcertment.

The eponymous short story 'The Accidentals' sealed the deal for me in terms of my views on Nettel's writing - albatross and the intangible connection between two lost souls - she is writer on my radar now.

The Accidentals is a series of thematically linked short stories about strange spaces of transition. Characters are in lockdown, or between relationships, or homes. Families collapse, time is bended, and things become unsettled. Interestingly, this is a piece of lockdown literature that speaks so much on the nature of lockdown literature.

But I found this all rather unfulfilling, it was a book of in-betweenness, but nothing more. These stories capture these transitional phases in life, but seem to merely paint vignettes rather than actually exploring the feelings they evoke. I do not seek perfect resolutions in stories, but I feel like nothing much happened or was explored in these stories. They lack a bit of substance for me.

Conceptually, this book is so far up my alley, but unfortunately it fell short in these ways. Perhaps I would prefer the longer writings of this author.

A really enjoyable and brilliant set of short stories by Mexican writer Guadalupe Nettel translated by Rosalind Harvey. The connecting thread of the collection is a character who goes off course from the predicted pattern of their life by encountering an unexpected person or event. A number of the stories contain an element of fantasy which adds to the delight making some stories read like fairy-tales for adults.

The narrative style is direct and straightforward with touches of colour and detail adding emphasis and meaning. Another theme which occurs is that of the power and wonder of nature. The title takes its name from albatrosses who lose their way and end up lost and far from where they need to be to breed. In one story a forest fire threatens a troubled family; in another, a woman trying to survive in a dystopian post-pandemic world finds solace in seeing a family of foxes.

The author is new to me and I'm glad to have found her work. Definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys short stories.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

A collection of eight short stories, The Accidentals covers scenarios as diverse as an estranged uncle on his deathbed, a found missing person, and the struggles of caring for teenage sons during lockdown. In examining the tangents and intersections of various lives Nettel works to effectively create space for a series of overlooked selves.

The variety of different narrators found within the collection is impressive and each story stands perfectly by itself - a series of masterpieces in miniature. The prose could sometime feel slightly stilted, caused perhaps by an overzealous grasping towards profundity. However, this is overshadowed by the overwhelmingly deft and gentle touch of Nettel’s writing (something retained by Harvey’s translation). The Accidentals is a well organised text which makes the search for its underlying thematic bent enjoyable rather than frustrating. Ultimately, the stories focus on those who exist outside the systems and norms of society, and the dissonant connections they forge.

The title of this collection refers to a term for a particular species of creature, featured in one story, with a convoluted mating process, and which has lost its way in the world.

This is a very apt choice.

Ranging from grounded domestic dramas, to magical realism and speculative fiction, several of the stories have common threads of compulsion, alienation, and the fraught complexity of human relationships, particularly between couples and within families.

Rosalind Harvey’s translation is lyrical and affecting, exhibiting none of the uneasy clangs of tortured idiom, or fractured rhythms which I’ve found can surface in translated work.

To me, some of the stories felt like a hiding to nothing, generating little more than a beautifully written and diverting blur of passing words, but an equal number left me with a sense of subtle disquiet, provoking some lingering reflection at the lack of an easy resolution.

This of course is a likely response to any collection, especially one as varied as this, but aside from the first story - Imprinting - which was on the nose and quite obvious from the second page, I can truly say these were not stories I had seen before, and most of them truly unpredictable.

I particularly responded to The Pink Door, and its stricken protagonist who, considerably less passive than those in the other stories, doomed himself and others through his own compulsions.

The Accidentals by Mexican author Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey, is a masterfully crafted collection of stories that brims with exceptional depth and radiant insight. Exploring the complexities of family dynamics and the peculiarities of everyday life, these tales capture a profound yearning for change, a dissatisfaction with the status quo, and a relentless search for something new. Across eight compelling narratives, Nettel demonstrates her remarkable storytelling prowess. Each piece opens with an irresistible hook that pulls the reader in, only to end in an unexpected, thought-provoking twist. This collection solidifies Nettel’s reputation as one of the most distinguished voices in contemporary Latin American literature.

The Accidentals by Guadalupe Nettel is a collection of eight short stories, that explore the actions of protagonists whose lives have been disrupted.

I enjoyed 'The pink door' which follows a man who rewinds time in search of a perfect life, but with every turn of the clock he finds himself unhappy compared to the previous life. And 'Playing with fire' where a family take a break in the outdoors during the lockdown, the family dynamics explored felt so realistic but also unsettling. The tension between the father and son, but the passiveness of the mother, it was all very raw.

Nettel has become a must read author for me and I've make a note to pick up Still Born, as soon as possible.

Thank you Fitzcarraldo Editions, Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Guadalupe Nettel is, without a doubt, my new favorite author for contemporary short stories. Her stories do not roar; they hum quietly, their echoes lingering long after the last word.

What really stands out is how distinct the voices are. Every first-person narrator feels like a whole new person. Each story has distinct elements, but there’s a consistent vibe running through them all, like they're all tracks on the same playlist. Some more realistic, some suggestive, all somewhat melancholic.

They’re about how the smallest, most unexpected moments can nudge lives in new directions, sometimes in ways you barely notice at first. If that sounds like your kind of thing, I can’t recommend this collection enough.

Guadalupe Nettel is firmly now one of my favourite authors after reading Still Born, After the winter and now this. Eight short stories that were each achingly beautiful and as well written as you would expect from Nettel. I read this over a day and am already itching to rereads some of my favourites. Will be recommending to everyone I know so that I can discuss them!

3.5 stars

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!

This is a quiet collection of stories exploring a myriad of relationships, between families, between husband and wife, between lovers. They’re melancholic, often wistful. Most are hyper realistic, but a couple venture off into more mysterious/magical realms. These two were probably my favourites. The Pink Door sees a man take a gamble on the unknown, rewinding certain parts of his life to relive them. The Torpor is set a few decades from now, in a world where the new normal during 2020 stayed that way, people never leaving their houses and living a life online.

The people in these stories are unsatisfied, confused, yearning, hopeful, stuck. In a world where it sometimes feels like we’re increasingly distant from one another, where dissonance is evermore present, the characters here strive to forge connections, fail as they sometimes do, they’re trying.

I didn’t find it as impactful as Still Born, but much better developed than the stories in Bezoar. The writing is lovely, translated by Rosalind Harvey.

The fantastic writer Guadalupe Nettel returns with another winner after the publication of her international Booker shortlisted novel, "Still Born". Published by Fitzcarraldo Editions (and translated by Rosalind Harvey), "The Accidentals" is a collection of stories about a group of characters who try to form connections in fractured societies. Nettel uses the short story form to create a group of characters who feel displaced in the world of covid and creeping fascism and totalitarianism. Nettel's care for her characters and the way she never gives easy answers to their problems makes this small volume such a treat to read.

There is something so comforting about reading Nettel because you know you're safe in her literary talents. She writes of people without a country; characters who do not know how to deal with disappointments in life; characters who feel unmoored because of the effects of covid deaths and restrictions. Nettel does not give readers easy answers or melodramatic endings. Instead, she opts for realistic moments of understanding. We don't live our lives in easily digestible aphorisms, and Nettel know this. She instead writes in a way that forces readers to engage their empathy and understanding of the characters' struggles.

This is another first-rate book from Guadalupe Nettel. Nettel is becoming one of my favourite writers, and Fitzcarraldo Editions again show what a superb job they do at selecting books to publish.

A book so beautiful I have felt the need to eke it out so that it doesn’t end. The writing (and translation) is sublime and captivates from the very first sentence. Each story has a similar feel without feeling clumsy or forced. If I had read only one of these stories I would judge it to be a triumph but the collection as a whole is mesmerizing.

The Accidentals
By Guadalupe Nettel
Translated from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey

Eight short stories with a common theme of displacement in some form another; a sliding door moment, an inadvertent betrayal, a brush with death, a story of being careful what you wish for, a story of watching someone else live the life you wanted for yourself, a dystopian imagining of living 15 years into a pandemic where lockdown is permanent.

At about 15 minutes for each story this collection could be gulped down in one go, but like all brilliant short stories, they each spark something in the imagination that makes them highly discussable. The writing style invites the reader straight in and with the exception of one, I found myself brooding over them and chatting about their premises with anyone who would listen.

My personal favourite is Life Elsewhere, but that is purely down to that whiffle we get when we encounter a familiar and loved location in our reading, in this case Gràcia in Barcelona.

I couldn't recommend this collection enough, a perfect combination of thematically contemporary and technically classical short stories that I could imagine George Saunders giving a big "Russian Greats" thumps up to.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #fitzcarraldoeditions for the ARC

The Accidentals is a collection of short stories by award winning novelist, Guadalupe Nettel. This collection deals with people coping with isolation, estrangement and the unknown.

My favourites were the title story about a boy and a girl who are the closest of friends but end up living in different countries; Torpor which imagines a family's life in a world coping with a virus for which there is no vaccine; Pink Door which tells the story of a man enticed into changing his life simply by eating a piece of confectionery. I think Pink Door edged it with the favouritism because it seemed so plausible - we are dissatisfied, we want a change but are we ever prepared for the outcome of change.

The writing is superb and I found myself wanting to rush through these stories and had to force myself to slow down. They are well worth savouring.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Fitzcarraldo for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.

The short stories in this collection have a compelling narrative voice, as if confiding in the reader. I liked the way they felt grounded in everyday life even as elements of the uncanny and paranormal were introduced.

My favourite passage was about a family's fraught game of Scrabble: "The first word he put down was JOKER, then he waited a couple of turns and added BASTARD, then BULLY, putting his tiles down on a part of the board which gave him a triple word score. At first we didn't notice, but then it started to come clear that these insults were aimed at his father."

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

One of the more inventive and touching short story collections I read in a while. Each story is characterised by an accident, or an occurence, that changes the typical flow of events. The stories are all told in the first person, but in all of them that first person is a very different character.

They are (nearly) all great, but the most memorable is perhaps the story of the man in his 60s looking to find new excitement in his life, but stumbles upon a way to do this that goes above and beyond his expectations. The story of the family trying to spend some time in nature, whose experience is turned on its head due to a bushfire is also exemplary in its analysis of a family struggling to stay together as its teenage sons turn into men. The story of the ageing actor, who regrets not getting the rental flat in Barcelona he yearned for is heartbreaking. The weakest story is, in my view, the last - describing a hypothetical reality where the lockdowns due to Covid never ended. I found that to be the least emotionally profound.

I loved the way each story was able to represent a completely fresh and different perspective on events, despite all being written by the same author. It almost felt like different people were writing these stories, and it was absolutely fantastic - I was enthralled by each narrator's emotional state, and felt immersed in their subjective reality.

It's an excellent read, and I recommend it to anyone interested in how unexpected events can affect lives in unexpected, but often small, ways. The fragility of life, plans, and intentions is paramount here.

My huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.