Spanish -- The Dead Leaves by Barbara Jacobs and translated by David Unger

Barbara Jacobs. The Dead Leaves. David Unger, tr. Willimantic, Ct. Curbstone (InBook, distr.). 1993. 126 pages. $10.95.

Although the protagonist of The Dead Leaves is identified only as "papa" in the main body of the text, the epigraphs of the second and third parts of the novel reveal him to be Emile Jacobs, more than likely the father of Barbara Jacobs. The identity of the latter, moreover, is masked through the use of a first-person-plural narrator--that is, the collective voice of Emile's offspring.

In the first of three parts, which occurs during the decade following World War II, Emile's mother (Mama Salima) and siblings are visited by Emile and his family, who inexplicably live in Mexico City. There Emile prospers...