Modiano traces the fate of a 15-year-old Jewish girl, who was deported from France to Auschwitz in 1942. The result of a ten-year investigation, his extended essay is a moving personal meditation on loss, interweaving the bare facts of Dora Bruder's story with his own family history. It evokes the atmosphere of Paris during the Nazi Occupation. A celebrated contemporary novelist, many of Modiano's many novels are also set in and around Paris.  (FRN200, $19.95)