cover image By the Rivers of Babylon and Other Stories by Jorge de Sena

By the Rivers of Babylon and Other Stories by Jorge de Sena

Jorge De Sena, Jorge De Sena. Rutgers University Press, $10.95 (176pp) ISBN 978-0-8135-1688-2

These 11 stories by a Portuguese man of letters often feature religious subject matter and historical figures: St. Paul addresses a Roman tribune in ``Night of Nativity'' and an English monk forces the stones of an ancient Druid temple to speak in the whimsical ``Sea of Stones.'' ``Tantalizing by the promise they show, the short narratives are unfleshed, lacking the spark of animation,'' PW said. (Mar.)