Anna Maria Ortese is an Italian writer well received in her homeland but hardly known in America. I discovered her by accident while browsing in a used book store in Venice (the one that's a district in Los Angeles). She practices a form of magical realism that is more subtle than the Latin Americans favor, and I found this makes her work a degree or two more haunting. In this collection of ten stories, all set in an enchanted urban reality, Ortese explores interior lives at moments of transformation, when her characters discover they lead blessed or cursed existences -- or both. She writes in a wonderfully moody, poetic prose and uses vivid descriptive passages to detail layers of emotion. Even in English translation, the language has a clear, crisp ring. Not all the stories are worth a second read, but those that are offer endless rounds of pleasure.

The Iguana is not easy bedside reading, to be sure. I picked this up not knowing what it was and was immediately hooked. It took me longer to figure out what I was reading and I'm not sure I understand it all yet, but it made me think. The characters are surely unique. Syntax can bog you down, but I think it's worth the work. I'm eager to read her newest...