Love and UFOs

Meg Wolitzer presents two stories that combine different sorts of unknowables: unidentified—or hard to identify—flying objects, and romantic love. In “The Duck,” by Ben Loory, a heartsick mallard has chosen a really unattainable object of affection. The reader, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, was Sonia Manzano. And an early Haruki Murakami story, “U.F.O. in Kushiro,” sends a jilted husband on a journey of self-discovery. The reader, at The Japan Society, was Javier Munoz.