cover image In the Skin of a Lion

In the Skin of a Lion

Michael Ondaatje. Penguin Books, $10.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-14-011309-9

A young man from the Canadian back country moves to Toronto and becomes involved with two actresses, experiencing love, despair and, eventually, compulsion to commit a violent act. ``A spellbinding writer, Ondaatje exhibits a poet's sensibility and care for the precise, illuminating word,'' praised PW . (November)