Black Swan CL

Multilayered, challenging and filled with mysterious beauty, this quirky novel will provide a rare treat for sophisticated readers who enjoy the works of Peter Dickinson, Jill Paton Walsh and Robert Westall. Aspiring actress Rose, who lives with her mother in a poor London neighborhood, has recently graduated from a prestigious secondary school which she attended on scholarship. When her mother falls ill, Rose takes over her job as cook and housekeeper for eccentric old Mr. Bernier, who lives in Salman Rushdie-like isolation. Mr. Bernier has acquired an Elizabethan manuscript, which he believes to be the diary of one Simon Forman, ``a scientist and a magician and necromancer and all sorts of other things,'' including friend to the playwright Christopher Marlowe and his lover, the black man known as Lazarus. Mr. Bernier dictates to Rose from the manuscript, recounting a tale of cunning machinations, thwarted love and the ``true'' origins of Shakespeare's plays; meanwhile, Mr. Bernier's enemies draw near. Both the 16th-century and the contemporary story lines are utterly engrossing. Dhondy's pulse-quickening novel makes crystal-clear the revolutionary power of the written and the spoken word. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)