High Infidelity

From Sara Powers's "The Wild," in which a grizzly bear unknowingly settles the score for a wronged wife, to T. Coraghessan Boyles "Ike and Nina," which brings to life an illicit affair between Nina Khrushchev and President Eisenhower, the stories in High Infinity are daring, hilarious, moving, seductive, and even, at times, horrifying.

While Ethan Canin's "The Year of Getting to Know Us" explores the impact of an adulterous father on a young son, Marly Swick's "A Hole in the Language" shows how the loss of a child leads to an affair between two suburban housewives.