Grant, Linda. When I lived in modern times; a novel.

Plume. 260p. c2000. 0-452-28292-6. $13.00. A

This sophisticated, literary novel tells of a 20-year-old English girl's experiences in Palestine, just as the British rule there is coming to an end in 1946. Evelyn leaves London after the death of her mother, helped by her mother's lover to enter Palestine on an extended tourist visa at a time when Jews (and Evelyn is a Jew) were having a very difficult time getting there. (Think Exodus.) Evelyn is smart and creative, even if she is not very well educated. After a brief stint on a kibbutz, she finds an apartment in Tel Aviv and gets a job as a hairdresser, working on the hair of British matrons and passing herself off as a non-Jew whose husband is a British policeman in a nearby town. This position attracts the attention of the Jewish terrorists trying to get rid of the British, and Evelyn falls in love with Johnny, her contact. Her information helps the terrorists kidnap British citizens, but ultimately she has to go underground, Johnny is captured, and the life she wanted in Palestine becomes impossible. That part of the narrative ends before independence and the war between Arabs and Jews. The final section, in which Evelyn returns to Israel 50 years later, is satisfying for readers who like looking back on a life considering the choices made, the compromises considered, the tragedies, the complexities.

Grant's writing is wonderfully understated, so when passion comes, and tragedy, it seems all the more vivid and powerful. The sexual scenes, for example, are briefly described but amazingly sensual. Evelyn's noting of the constant anti-Semitism of the British is hurtful and shocking, really, especially since 1946 was so soon after the Holocaust--you would think the British would have had more compassion. Claire Rosser, KLIATT