The Unraveling

"A.N. Devers’ story “The Unraveling” isn’t at all the sort of thing I like, a magic-realist fable (strike one) about the privileged anguish of apartment-hunting in Brooklyn (strike two) told entirely in emails (you’re out)," writes guest editor and Pulitzer Prize nominee David Gates in his introduction to this edition of Recommended Reading. "But it’s worked its insidious way with me: what looks like a trendy exercise turns out to be a classic American story, in the tradition of Hawthorne or Poe. "

In "The Unraveling" a desperate couple search for the perfect apartment with the assistance of an eccentric and tyrannical broker. The strain of apartment hunting in turn puts a psychological strain on the couple. "A knowing reader will refrain from deciding whether 'The Unraveling' ends on a note of transcendence or delusion," writes Gates. "But any reader will recognize that this is a superbly put-together story, moving and disturbing beneath its ingenious surface, and—despite its evocation of literary tradition—absolutely unique."