September Publications

First published in 1994 in French, The Story of the Madman by Mongo Beti blatantly satirizes the local power struggles of postcolonial Africa. When a chance incident brings village patriarch Zoaételeu and his people to the attention of the newly established government, Zoaételeu and his two favorite sons, Zoaétoa and Narcisse, find their fortunes linked to the fate of the unnamed country. Zoaételeu's imprisonment and Narcisse's and Zoaétoa's downfall reveal the "madness" of the regime. Born in Cameroon and exiled in France for years, Beti delivers a biting account of Africa's woes. (Univ. Press of Virginia, $45 224p ISBN 0-8139-2048-5; paper $16.95 -2049-3)

The Last Confession by acclaimed Australian author Morris West (The Devil's Advocate; The Shoes of the Fisherman; The Ambassadors) is a posthumously published fictional account of Dominican monk Giordano Bruno's imprisonment before he is convicted of heresy and burned at the stake during the Inquisition in 1600. Presented in the form of a final testament written by Bruno in prison, the novel chronicles Bruno's life, his religious reflections and his final days in his cell. Introduction by Thomas Keneally. (Center Point, $25.95 248p ISBN 1-58547-131-3)

In Fault Lines: Stories of Divorce, editor Caitlin Shetterly gathers short stories about separation and divorce. In "The Season of Divorce" by John Cheever, a young married woman is courted by an older married man, who appears on her doorstep to ask her husband to give her up. In Wendi Kaufman's "Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street," 11-year-old Vita imagines herself as Helen of Troy to cope with the pain and confusion of her father's departure. Also included are stories by John Updike, Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie, Andre Dubus, Richard Ford, Alice Munro and others. (Berkley, $21.95 368p ISBN 0-425-18161-8)

Everything Is Nice and Other Fiction, a 50th-anniversary anthology issued by independent British publisher Peter Owen, includes work by some of the most daring of 20th-century writers. In "Everything Is Nice" by Jane Bowles, a white woman in North Africa meets a Muslim woman on the street and follows her home, caught up in a near-absurd conversation. "The Poet," a prose poem by Octavio Paz, reflects rapturously on the nature of writing. Paul Bowles, Herman Hesse, Anaïs Nin and Colette are among the other writers represented. B&w illustrations. (192p ISBN 0-7206-1126-1)

Blow-by-blow descriptions of the sexual adventures and drug-fueled escapades of suburban teens drive Synthetic Bi Products by Sparrow L. Patterson. Bisexual Orleigh is dying to escape the Chicago suburbs, and her quest for excitement eventually takes her to California. Along the way, she follows the Grateful Dead, becomes a tattoo artist and finds true love. Orleigh's on-the-fringe living is convincingly bleak and grungy, but unsteady prose makes Patterson's tale a taxing read. (Akashic, $15.95 paper 355p ISBN 1-888451-18-1)

Set in the mountainous region of Ruthenia just after its annexation by Czechoslovakia after World War I, Ivan Olbracht's Nikola the Outlaw tells the story of the Greek Orthodox peasants who share the province with a merchant class of Jews. Nikola, one of the peasants, gains his fame by robbing travelers and distributing the proceeds to the poor. When the authorities and Jewish merchants offer a reward for Nikola's capture, some of Nikola's gang conspire against him for the prize money. This Robin Hood tale, a 20th-century Czech classic and Olbracht's masterpiece, is available now in a new translation by Maria K. Holecek. (Northwestern Univ., $18.95 paper 288p ISBN 0-8101-1827-0)