An unnerving collection of short stories in which the comforting conventions of family life are examined, challenged, and subverted . . . Oscillating between realism and dark fantasy, and impeccably translated by Rosalind Harvey, the stories in The Accidentals are delightful and disturbing, and confirm Nettel as one of the finest Mexican writers of her generation.

Financial Times

Families, secrets, and hidden desires loom large in this excellent collection.

New York Journal of Books

[A] captivating, wise, and uncanny collection . . . Nettel's magnificent stories acknowledge the frequent inability of people to understand why or why not they establish strong connections with others. This recognition underpins the collection's nuanced, insightful, and sometimes ironic approach to family, friendship, self-understanding, and the perception of how others succeed or fail in staying true to their and their acquaintances' tales and where they come from.

World Literature Today

Electrifying . . . With laser-like precision, the eight stories probe such universal aspects of the human condition as desire, loneliness, and memory . . . In crisp and striking prose, Nettel mines the complexities of relationships, in which secrets and betrayals have the power to change everything. Readers will be wowed.

Publishers Weekly, starred review

While probing the fringes of the human condition, Nettel's stories prove to be engrossing and relatable.

Booklist

Seeks out the fantastic that lurks in the interstices of everyday life . . . Nettel's prose, brought to us in Rosalind Harvey's punctilious translation, is precise and formalized, with a wildness held back – like a neat picket fence confining a dangerous place . . . These stories illustrate different ways a person can become an accidental in their own world

The Spectator World