The stories of Janice Shapiro’s debut collection, Bummer, are told in a voice so natural and earnest, in sentences that so resemble the searching way we speak, you may just forget you’re reading a book.

In the preface to his first collection of short fiction, 14 Fictional Positions, Eric Miles Williamson tells us that the stories contained within ought not be considered mere exercises—though, he says, that’s exactly the function they’ve served.

In unexpectedly postmodern moments throughout Alice Mattison’s new novel, Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn, the author addresses the reader. Mattison tells you, firstly, that despite what the title may suggest this is not a story about memory, and that though it may seem odd she has good reason for the structure she has chosen.

Belly, the debut novel from Lisa Selin Davis, meanders almost as much as its hero. But even where the plot plateaus, as it does in the middle, the prose is strongly compelling.