A Storm from Paradise

British writer Hood's first work of fiction to be published in the U.S. is a simple, enchanting story. The narrator begins his tale in the years preceding World War I, when his father, John Scott, was the schoolmaster in a small village in Scotland. Elizavyeta, a mysterious woman who lives in a villa on the edge of town, asks John if he will tutor the two children she is caring for. He agrees, and grows very close to the woman. They are an unlikely pair. The daughter of a rabbi in Poland, she is a socialist and an activist. Not at all political and subdued by nature, John is a romantic, yet Elizavyeta brings into his life the only romance he will know. When she suddenly leaves town, John marries a local womanthe narrator's motherand fades into a loveless, almost lifeless existence. Flashbacks to John's past help to flesh out this sympathetic character. Based on Hood's own father's life, this quiet, profound novel will leave readers eager to read the author's previous work. October