Paul Theroux Shows Why Bible Is More Than Food for Thought

NEW YORK Paul Theroux, whom we last met kayaking alone among theisles of Oceania, has come home to Boston for his latest novel.

The results are thoroughly exotic.

What else could we expect from an author whose fiction hasexposed a writer's secret life and sexual exploits in Africa, whoseessays have decried the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, whose travelbooks have floated him down the Yangtze River and in Argentina'sdesolate Patagonia?

His new work, Millroy the Magician (Random House, $24), is acharming story about a fairground magician and his 14-year-oldrunaway assistant and how they start a religion.

It's also a critical and revealing look at …