SOURCE: Adams, Robert M. “Cornering the Market.” New York Review of Books (3 December 1992): 14–16.

In the following excerpt, Adams provides an overview of Continent and The Gift of Stones and offers a favorable review of Arcadia.

Jim Crace is a British writer who has just published his third work of fiction without having made much impression in his first two. This seems likely to change soon. Born in London in 1946 but resident in Birmingham, Crace is apparently tied to no literary group of academic or political influence. Although our real business here is with his third work of fiction, Arcadia, a preliminary account of the first two, Continent and The Gift of Stones, may give some notion of where Jim Crace is coming from.

Continent contains seven short stories, all with a flavor of fantastic Africa. It doesn't have any big-game herds or very many naked jungle tribesmen. No...