The Leto Bundle

Prolific fiction and nonfiction writer Marina Warner draws on grand themes of history and belonging in her ambitious new novel, The Leto Bundle, in which a collection of cryptic documents and artifacts once belonging to Leto, a woman of the ancient Near East, is put on exhibit in present-day Europe and causes an unexpected stir. Kim McQuy, an idealistic schoolteacher, becomes obsessed with the idea of Leto and strikes up an odd working relationship with matter-of-fact museum curator Hortense Fernly. Warner's deft command of her material and her ability to create fully believable charactersmanages to both question and applaud the power of myth in modern society, and readers will be entranced with the magical pull of this well-told tale. (Apr.)