The Bay of Foxes

Set primarily in Paris in 1978, Kohler's newest (after Children of Pithiviers) is the tale of Dawit, a beautiful, young but broke Ethiopian refugee, and M., a 60-year-old novelist who writes obsessively about her girlhood in a French African colony and her long lost Ethiopian lover. When Dawit fortuitously meets M. in a caf%C3%A9, the latter is overcome by his striking resemblance to her old flame, and subsequently asks Dawit to come live with her. Within days, Dawit finds himself wearing M.'s clothes, offering feedback on her manuscripts, and even pretending to be his benefactor in written and telephonic correspondence. All is well until the pair retires to M.'s Italian villa on the Cala di Volpe, the titular Bay of Foxes. There, Dawit grows restless%E2%80%94once a slave to hunger and poverty, his improved state seems nevertheless characterized by a similar condition of bondage, something Dawit resolves to escape, whatever the cost. Set against a richly dramatic landscape and historical background, Kohler's work is rife with duplicity, jealousy, wealth, and violence, but the characters feel more like self-consciously literary creations than flesh-and-blood people. As a result, the thrills are superficial and what should shock falls flat. (June)