cover image Face

Face

Cecile Pineda. Penguin Books, $6.95 (194pp) ISBN 978-0-14-007600-4

Nominated for a 1985 American Book Award, this first novel centers on a Brazilian man whose face is horribly disfigured in an accident. Helio Cara loses his job, his mistress, his friends, and then seeks to create a new visage through a grisly form of self-surgery. PW called Pineda's theme of identity ""compelling.'' (May)