Books: RECENT & READABLE, Jan. 7, 1952

Barabbas, by Par Lagerkvist. The story of a reprieved cutthroat who was haunted to the end by the memory of Golgotha ; a fine novel by the 1951 Nobel Prizewinner (TIME, Dec. 3).

Closing the Ring. Volume V of Winston Churchill's incomparable history of World War II (TIME, Nov. .26).

Gods, Graves & Scholars, by C. W.

Ceram. The big men and big moments of modern archeology; proof that digging can be dramatic (TIME, Nov. 12).

The Conformist, by Alberto Moravia.

Italy's best novelist unravels the character of a Fascist (TIME, Nov. 12).

The Selected Letters of Henry Adams, edited by Newton Arvin. Memorable commentary on two generations of U.S. life, by a brilliant and introspective man who grew up thinking that the presidency was a family trade (TIME, Nov. 12).

LIFE'S Picture History of Western Man.

A vividly illustrated panorama of a thousand years of Western civilization (TIME, Nov. 5).

Katherine Mansfield's Letters to John Middleton Murry. Touchingly intimate self-revelations by the author of some of the finest short stories in the language (TIME, Nov. 5).

The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene. A shocker about an adulterous love that leads to sainthood (TIME, Oct. 29).

Mister Johnson, by Joyce Gary. A fresh and exuberant story of the rise & fall of a Nigerian career man (TIME, Oct. 8).