The ways in which the past exerts influence in the present is a crucial motif in Christy Ann Conlin’s seductive first collection of short fiction, Watermark. In some cases her characters are trying to escape poor choices they have made or put bad experiences behind them. Friends and family feature prominently in these stories, and Conlin’s characters are often seeking to mend or reach a better understanding of relationships that have gone awry. The book opens with “Eyeball in Your Throat,” in which Lucy has great difficulty understanding the unusual life choices that her adventure-seeking daughter Deirdre has made and continues to make. In “Dead Time,” a snarky, manipulative teen named Isabella, in police custody accused of murdering her boyfriend’s former girlfriend, spends her time in the spotlight blaming everyone but herself for her predicament. Twenty-something Viola, in “The Diplomat,” has spent years trying to distance herself from the boredom of life in rural New Brunswick, where she grew up. But through the intervention of a Chinese student with whom she’s having an affair, she attains a new appreciation of the home and simple life she left behind. The suspenseful “Full Bleed” is a 21st-century re-telling of Flannery O’Connor’s masterpiece “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” And in the creepy, gothic-tinged “The Flying Squirrel Sermon” Ondine visits the house in the woods where her grandmother grew up only to learn more than she wants to know about the family’s sordid history from the old woman living there before everything spins out of control. This story in particular demonstrates Conlin’s ability to fill in her characters’ complex backstories while maintaining the forward momentum of the tale she’s telling. There is no filler in this book, nothing that falls flat or seems superfluous. Each story is elegantly structured and expertly paced, written with wit, urgency, compassion and attention to detail. The pull of home is a motivating factor for much of the action, but, as Christy Ann Conlin shows again and again, home can be smothering as well as nurturing. The world of Christy Ann Conlin’s fiction bursts with authenticity, but it’s also a place where unknown menace lurks in the shadows. These are surprising, thought-provoking, thoroughly entertaining stories that demonstrate that we are often unprepared for what life throws at us. All we can do is try our best. ( )