One minute Tegan is cycling through a sunlit forest, the next she is cartwheeling over her handlebars and tumbling down a steep slope.

She lands in a ravine, her arm broken, and she lies there for days, slipping in and out of consciousness. Eventually, she is spotted by a stranger and taken to a strange facility, one that is off the map and protected by razor wire and armed guards. When she is well enough, she roams the premises and finds rooms lined with cells. Most are filled with animals; some contain women.

When Tegan goes in search of answers, she is horrified to learn about a sinister gene- editing program. “You think we got to the moon and cured cancer by being nice?” a scientist asks her. Only then does it become clear to Tegan that her rescuers might be captors who have no intention of releasing her anytime soon.

Deliciously unsettling, “The Wilderness” is one of eight stories that make up Mark Haddon’s excellent new collection. Several are inspired by works of literature, others by fables and legends. As with the British author’s 2019 novel “The Porpoise,” which fused a contemporary tale with Shakespeare’s version of “Pericles,” “Dogs and Monsters” demonstrates how ancient stories can yield new delights when repurposed, updated and told from different perspectives.

In “The Mother’s Story,” Haddon reinterprets the myth of the minotaur. Shifting the drama from Crete to England, he tells of a woman who gives birth to a “mooncalf,” a repellent creature that her husband incarcerates in a maze beneath their palace. Only by defying her husband and entering the labyrinth can she offer the boy a new chance in life.

Whether depicting St. Anthony the Great besieged by a shape- shifting devil or boarding- school boys tormented by bullies, Haddon’s inventive and entertaining tales find new ways of exploring age- old themes — fate and mortality, love and betrayal, loneliness and madness. All showcase the enduring power of storytelling.

The finest stories here tap into our primal fears. For as Haddon informs us: “There is nothing more terrifying than the monster that squats behind the door you dare not open.” — Malcolm Forbes, Minnesota Star Tribune

With “America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War,” historian H.W. Brands has written a resonant history of how Roosevelt fought behind the scenes — and eventually publicly — against the “America First” movement whose name was later appropriated by former President Donald Trump.

The book chronicles how aviator Charles Lindbergh became the charismatic face of the “America First” movement that arose in the wake of WWI and urged against the United States’ intervening overseas as Adolf Hitler rose to power.

Brands expertly displays the control President Franklin Delano Roosevelt displayed in approaching the movement during his early years in office, despite seeing the threat it could pose to foreign policy in the long term.

“Their policy was really ‘America alone,’ at a time when the United States needed all the help it could get in dealing with the existential challenge of militant fascism,” Brands writes.

The book also displays how Roosevelt maneuvered around Lindbergh, trying to avoid aggravating the aviator’s followers as the U.S. inched closer toward involvement in Europe. Brands tells how Lindbergh’s rhetoric fueled his rise as “America First” spokesman but also led to his downfall, culminating in a 1941 speech widely condemned for its antisemitism.

Brands shows great restraint in avoiding for most of the book in drawing parallels between Roosevelt’s fight with isolationists to today’s politics. But his straightforward history is an important guide for understanding the legacy of the movement that Lindbergh led. — Andrew DeMillo, Associated Press