The man in the banana trees

Sheffer's inventive debut collection fuses reality and fantasy. In "Rickey," a high school counselor works with a troubled student who happens to be an anthropomorphic felt puppet. "Yellow Ball Python" chronicles the deterioration of a couple's relationship, as their running jokes about a neighbor's missing pet snake give way to a reckoning over their differences ("I liked to think Sunny made it home; you thought his former family just gave up looking" the narrator reflects, addressing their partner). In the title story, which draws on elements of "Rumpelstiltskin" and "The Yellow Wallpaper," a woman blames her miscarriage on a mysterious figure she spots in the trees ("He couldn't have been taller than four feet"). "Local Specialty" injects a Twilight Zone vibe into a story of a tanker that crashes near a New England port and spills an unidentified liquid that turns local crustaceans into "super lobsters." Some entries, like "The Pantheon of Flavors" and "The Wedding Table," make less of an impression, but generally Sheffer keeps things interesting by making a point to zig when one might expect a story to zag. For the most part, this is rewarding. (Nov.)