The Madonna on the Moon

German photographer and journalist Rolf Bauerdick makes his fiction debut with an ambitious and fun first novel. Opening in the 1950s, but spanning over decades with the history of the small village of Baia Luna, located in the fictional Eastern European nation of Transmontania, the book chronicles life before, during, and after a country's absorption into the socialist bloc, through the hindsight of protagonist Pavel Botev, a teenaged student at the novel's start. The village of Baia Luna is uniquely populated by a cast of bizarre and enjoyable characters and is among the few places to resist the spread of socialism. Bauserdick's plot centers primarily around two mysteries: an unsolved murder in 1957 with consequences that resonate for years to come, and a conspiracy linking the launch of Sputnik to location of the Virgin Mary's body. The first two-thirds of the book sparkle with fun and wit. The end is less promising: in that the clever twists and turns at the start are built up and then suddenly resolved in hurried expositional conversations at the end. Nevertheless, this engaging first effort should appeal to fans of Robertson Davies's sagas and the cosmic irreverence of Tom Robbins. (July)