Wondermonger

Rothschild's ( Rhapsody of the Heart ) lapidary use of language is itself nearly the central figure in these 10 stories. It would be a mistake, however, for the author's dazzling style to blind the reader to the urgency of the themes here--birth and death are twin motifs of these short fictions. The most exquisite pieces are also the briefest: ``The Toad,'' in which a pregnant woman watches a garden snake engulf a toad that she has admired for ``its serene frowning presence, black egg-shaped pupil in a bronze rim''; and ``A Land Without Fossils,'' in which a father puts aside his painting of a dead bird to confront the lushly exotic realm his five-year-old son has imagined as ``the place where he had lived before he was a son.'' Elsewhere, men breed animals just as easily as they kill (``Dog in the Manger''); in the title story, a man who falsely reports another's death assists in the birth of the latter's child. This collection is to be savored for its marriage of voluptuous artistry and unblinking honesty. (June)