All His Sons

Author of 37 books, Frederic Raphael (A Double Life, etc.) returns with All His Sons, comprising a novella and nine stories, many originally written for BBC Radio. In the title piece, set in New York, two bickering Jewish brothers learn that their father may have been murdered. Filled with crackling dialogue parts of the story take the form of a screenplay it is a darkly funny meditation on truth, heritage, race and loyalty. The stories, peopled by film and literature types, are at once cynical and wise, if sometimes too uniform in tone. ( May 1)