June Publications
Nina Berberova's (1901—1993) The Tattered Cloak, translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz, collects six stories dealing with Russian exiles of various backgrounds living in Paris just before World War II. "The Resurrection of Mozart" focuses on a woman anxiously awaiting her husband's return home as she juggles French soldiers, her disabled son and a mysterious vagrant musician. The title story is narrated by Sasha, who moves from Petersburg to Paris with her father and for years is haunted by the memory of her older sister. Berberova has been compared to Chekhov, and these stories glow with a quiet intensity. (New Directions, $14.95 paper 307p ISBN 0-8112-1473-7; June 26)
Henk Van Woerden, who has lived in both the Netherlands and South Africa, recreates the intriguing life of Demetrios Tsafendas and his 1966 assassination of apartheid leader Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd in his novel The Assassin (trans. from the Dutch by Dan Jacobson). Nominated for two major Dutch awards and translated into five languages, this story deals masterfully with galvanizing issues of race and power in South Africa under apartheid. With insight and empathy, Van Woerden imagines Tsafendas's torments as a biracial witness to a brutal regime and his progress toward the ultimate gesture of repudiation. (Holt/Metropolitan, $22 192p ISBN 0-8050-6631-4)
Art, reality and the strange ways the two imitate one another are at the core of Muriel Spark's delightful Loitering with Intent, first published in 1981. Would-be novelist Fleur Talbot works for the snooty, irascible Sir Quentin Oliver at the Autobiographical Association, whose members are all at work on their memoirs. When her employer gets his hands on Fleur's novel-in-progress, mayhem ensues when its scenes begin coming true. Generating hilarious turns of phrase and larger-than-life characters (especially Sir Quentin's batty mother), Sparks's inimitable style make this literary joyride thoroughly appealing. (New Directions, $13.95 paper 224p ISBN 0-8112-1474-5; June 28)
First published in 1967 to critical raves, Thomas Savage's The Power of the Dog now includes an afterword by Annie Proulx. It traces the tense relationship between two bachelor brothers, Phil and George Burbank, on a Montana ranch in the 1920s. When George marries a widow, Phil, a bullying, repressed homosexual, terrorizes his new sister-in-law. And when her teenage son comes to the ranch, things get even more complicated. This is just the first reissue of a long-out-of-print book by Savage, hailed as a true master of the western genre. I Heard My Sister Speak My Name is scheduled for this fall, retitled The Sheep Queen. (Back Bay, $13.95 paper 304p ISBN 0-316-64220-7)
Two Jamaican women confined to a British psychiatric ward relate their experiences in Jacqueline Roy's debut, The Fat Lady Sings. Gloria is a lesbian who has been hospitalized for her outbursts of erratic behavior, including singing loudly and hitting a police officer. Merle is tormented by voices in her head and by memories of sexual abuse. Roy does an admirable job of examining the events that have brought the women to this point, as they try to make sense of what has happened to them and of what is to become of their lives. (The Women's Press [Trafalgar, dist.], $16.95 paper 242p ISBN 0-7043-4647-8; June 15)
The Fifth Act comprises three recent scripts (and a brief introductory piece called "Monologue") by Ingmar Bergman, trans. from the Swedish by Linda Haverty Rugg and Joan Tate. Texts include "After the Rehearsal," in which a director looks back on a life in the theater; "The Last Scream," which finds a failed film director raging over injustices dealt to him; and "In the Presence of a Clown," featuring a quirky inventor based on Bergman's uncle. Film buffs will be intrigued, but the book may find an even wider appeal: "it looks like drama but could just as easily be film, television, or simply texts for reading." (The New Press, $24.95 192p ISBN 1-56584-662-1)
One of Tennessee Williams's earliest plays, Fugitive Kind, was first produced in 1937 and introduced characters and themes that 'resurfaced in Orpheus Descending and other plays. Set in a Midwestern riverfront flophouse, it centers around the proprietress, Glory, and Terry Meighan, a gangster on the lam after a bank robbery. Tensions mount between the two, and they fall for one another, but all ends in tragedy. Mainly die-hard Williams fans will want this one—and they're probably better of with it than with the lackluster film version, directed by Sidney Lumet. (New Directions, $12.95 paper ISBN 0-8112-1472-9)
Fourteen stories by young writers from China and Tibet are collected in Tales of Tibet: Sky Burials, Wind Horses, and Prayer Wheels (edited and trans. by Herbert Batt), a volume intended to record and dramatize the relationship between Tibetans and their Chinese colonizers. Both groups of writers focus on the venerable Buddhist traditions of Tibet. The country's history under foreign powers and its role as spiritual mecca undergird the tales, which feature, variously, a Tibetan beggar who claims to own a rich man's house, a British commander who invades Tibet in 1904 and a Buddhist nun who achieves a state of perfect compassion. (Rowman & Littlefield, $24.95 paper 240p ISBN 0-7425-0053-5)
Traditional Jewish storytelling is given a vibrant new twist in The Sweetheart Is In, a witty and intimate debut collection of short stories by S.L. Wisenberg. Ceci Rubin, the protagonist of a series of linked tales, is a typical heroine: daughter of a soldier who liberated Mauthausen, she grows up in Texas, then moves to Chicago, where she falls in love with a religious Jewish woman, who is oblivious to Ceci's feelings. In pithy prose and brief paragraphs, Wisenberg documents the secret hopes and fears of her characters, many practicing Jews, others mindful of their heritage. (Northwestern Univ. Press, $17.95 paper 168p ISBN 0-8101-5124-3)
The posthumous Easterns and Westerns includes a novella and 13 stories by Glendon Swarthout, author of 16 novels including The Shootist and Where the Boys Are. His darkly humorous "Death to Everybody Over Thirty" tracks a student's guilt and indignation when he returns home for the funeral of a friend killed in Vietnam. The O. Henry Prize—winning "A Glass of Blessings" finds a group of spoiled college kids drinking their way through Europe on a cruise ship. Spanning more than 30 years, this collection is an excellent introduction to Swarthout, highlighting his remarkable versatility. (Michigan State Univ., $26.95 220p ISBN 0-87013-572-4)
First in the Premier Plus! series of large-print books is the late British author Catherine Cookson's Riley, published for the first time in the U.S. Cookson wrote over 70 books during her lifetime, often focusing on the lives of the working class. Here she explores the complicated relationship between a younger man and an older woman. After a difficult childhood, Riley lands a job at the Little Palace Theatre, where he forms a bond with the actress Nyrene Forbes-Mason; all manner of complications ensue. Sensitively told, if at times melodramatic, this will appeal to fans of Maeve Binchy and the like.(Center Point, $29.95 480p ISBN 1-58547-071-6)
For those truly unable to get enough of the perennial queen of mystery, St. Martin's has reissued Absent in the Spring, a collection of three novels by Agatha Christie writing under the pen name Mary Westmacott. The clipped prose and careful plotting are familiar, but daggers and blunt objects are replaced in this trio of psychological dramas by sofa cushions and tea sets. The title novel tells of a middle-class man haunted by a past liaison; Giant's Bread of a composer and pianist obsessed with art; and The Rose and the Yew Tree of a young woman tormented by love. ($17.95 paper 656p ISBN 0-312-27322-3)
Corrections: The author of The Miracle of Edgar Mint (Forecasts, May 28) is Brady Udall. Although photographers and photography are prohibited at his booksignings, Andy McNab (Firewall, Forecasts, June 4) will be touring for his novel.
