• Fiction. By Peter Ho Davies. Houghton Mifflin, $24.Grade: C+

Plot in a nutshell: Davies' first novel is an ambitious look at war and betrayal, love and loyalties. When the British build a POW camp in a remote village in northern Wales near the end of World War II, Esther, a local barmaid, joins her neighbors to look at the men, ragged and drawn, behind the fairgrounds fence. It's the first time any of them have seen the enemy, and they're entranced by the men's war-torn humanity and the mythical evil now so deeply embedded in the word "German." Although Esther is unnerved by the prisoners' arrival and the possibility that one of them could have shot at her almost-fiancé, Rhys, she finds herself glancing again at a young German submariner who looks her way.

It is this German who later drags her into the shadow of her own barn and implores her not to scream. His name is Karsten, and he has escaped the camp , with little forethought as to how he will survive or escape Wales. Esther feeds him, and as guards search the village for their missing prisoner, a curious kind of love blooms.

Sample of prose: Even before Esther knows the POW's name , their moments together are fleeting but poignant . Davies is at his most poetic here, when Esther reluctantly agrees that the man must leave: "He stands there for a moment, swaying slightly on his heels as if in a breeze, and then he leaves her, stooping against the dusk as if the descending dark might crush him. She watches him go with a sense of release, as of a secret finally spoken."

Pros: Once Esther and Karsten meet, Davies' prose acquires inspired urgency. Their relationship is intriguingly complex, the plot twists are unexpected, and the characters' life decisions carry the weight of the war's atrocities.

Cons: Unfortunately, these two don't meet until well over halfway through the novel, and although the alternating chapters of first Esther then Karsten are engaging, the novel is not nearly as cohesive and inspired before their encounter as it is afterward.

Final word: It's too bad this author of two acclaimed story collections didn't have a more stringent editor. His exploration of both individual and national identity is fascinating, but only the last third of the novel reads with the craft its characters deserve.