cover image The Book and the Brotherhood

The Book and the Brotherhood

Iris Murdoch. Penguin Books, $16 (624pp) ISBN 978-0-14-010470-7

``Fertile in the arts of language, story and philosophy, Murdoch brilliantly entertains the robust reader,'' said PW . The author's 23rd novel, this concerns a male and female, bookishly inclined ``brotherhood,'' and one of their numbera fanatical, possibly mad writer. (Jan.)