Romps to Remember

Steven Heighton was a celebrated writer who died too young. But thankfully there’s now a definitive anthology of his short fiction. Sacred Rage features gems from each of his four story collections: Flight Paths of the Emperor (1992), On Earth As It Is (1995), The Dead Are More Visible (2012), and the wonderful, posthumously published Instructions for the Drowning (2023). Nearly half of the selections come from that fourth book, including “Professions of Love,” a master class in ego and unreliable narration; “Instructions for the Drowning,” a very funny tale about a near-death experience in cottage country; and “As If in Prayer,” a brief piece about a Muslim man who buries drowned migrants in Greece.

“ ‘A Man with No Master . . .’ ” is a standout. The owner of a school in Osaka, Japan, has enlisted the help of the mafia to take down a competitor by kidnapping its principal. But instead of their target, who is out to...