Paradise

In this less than stellar first novel from the author of Ring, a mystical red reindeer symbol loosely links three pairs of star-crossed lovers as the three-part story meanders across many centuries. The novel's first part, ""Legend,"" chronicles the fate of the lovely Fayau and her husband, Bogud, who's left bereft on the prehistoric Mongolian steppes when invaders kidnap his wife and child. In ""Paradise,"" set on a South Pacific island in the 18th century, the European sailor Jones falls for the sensuous native, Laia. ""Dessert"" leaps forward to 1990s New York City and the arid southwestern U.S., where the editor Flora Aideen follows the classical music composer Leslie Mardoff for a photo essay, and in hopes of helping him to create a masterpiece. Suzuki fans who have been waiting for this first English translation may be disappointed by its stilted language and contrived plot.