A short story collection and a novel

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"An hour later, a couple lingered in front of a death mask that cost several hundred dollars. They both wore shorts and sandals and carried mesh tote bags. They spoke in a foreign language; the man kept touching the space between the woman's shoulders. Joyce watched them from behind the register. They were young, early twenties, and looked happy. She both envied and pitied them."

This segment is from "We Are Calling to Offer You a Fabulous Life," a short story by Laura van den Berg. It was first published in the Northwest Review and then in her first book, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009). The story collection also includes the title story (first printed in One Story), which I discussed in a previous post, and "Where We Must Be," about a failed actress who takes a job pretending to be Bigfoot.

I also recently read Jhumpa Lahiri's first published novel, The Namesake (Houghton Mifflin, 2003).