Nevil Shute returns to an old love in this unusual book--the great Icelandic and American legend of Lief Ericson and Eric the Red and the voyages to Massachusetts Bay . . . He rediscovers one of the sturdiest and most romantic stories in history and brings to it both the freshness of a new form and the sweep and majesty of the sagas. Mr. Shute tells the story of fiery Eric and his more level-headed son from the vantage point of a young English history master, and he casts his narrative in the form of a movie script-a form more closely related to the ancient sagas in feeling than many readers would sus-pect. Those who know and love the vibrant characters Mr. Shute has created in, his novels will find much to delight them here. Eric, a great fighting, beering and wenching man, marches through the book with compelling vigor. His son Lief, who made the voyage after a tragic love affair in the Orkneys, is fully realized as a great man and a great explorer. And the court scenes in Norway are strange and half-lit, marvelously evoca- tive.