Infanta

Kirchhoff, a German novelist and playwright, writes with the density of Thomas Mann and the keen moral probing of Graham Greene. Set in the Philippines, this study of a rootless German narcissist, advertising model Kurt Lucas, and his passionate affair with a native woman less than half his age, 19-year-old housemaid Mayla Ledesma, succeeds as a tragic love story. But the political events it describes--including assassinations, the overthrow of the Filipino dictator and a retired U.S. general's sortie with his mercenary army--seem incidental, even though Kurt becomes a hero of the revolution. The cast of this American debut, an award-winning bestseller in Germany, includes ex-Jesuit priest Wilhelm Gussmann, a bird surgeon whose hopeless passion for Mayla hastens his death, and Dona Elvira, the black chanteuse who casts a spell over the shantytown of Infanta. Kirchhoff's descriptive powers rescue the narrative from a portentousness threatened by Kurt's egoistic floundering and the discussions among five Jesuit priests. (Sept.)