28 NOVEMBER 1987, Page 34

Piers Paul Read

The Polish Way by Adam Zamoyski is an excellent history of Poland, handsomely published (John Murray, £17.95). The Case of Thomas N. (Deutsch, £9.95) is an austere but intriguing first novel by John David Morley; The Parting by Leonid Borodin, translated by David Floyd (Col- lins Harvill, £10.95), gives an interesting insight into dissident circles in Moscow. Paul Johnson's History of the Jews (Weidenfeld, £20) is a useful compendium — in some parts brilliant, in others pedes- trian. He is kinder to the Jews than he was to the Christians in his History of Christian- ity.