7 OCTOBER 2000, page 50

Artfully Administered Shocks

Anita Brookner THE BLIND ASSASSIN by Margaret Atwood Bloomsbury, £16.99, pp. 521 M argaret Atwood's artful and attrac- tive novel exhumes a long-buried scandal of her own......

Defining Fickle Frontiers

Jane Gardam A DESERT IN BOHEMIA by Jill Paton Walsh Doubleday, £12.99, pp. 228 J ill Paton Walsh's novel, Knowledge of Angels, so surprised her publishers by its difference from......