By turns a love story, murder mystery and political fiction, this vivid novel follows the narrator from Boston to Guatemala to New York as he searches for his roots. With a conversational but stunningly evocative and sensual prose, Goldman is just as comfortable discoursing on high school romance as he is with the tortured political history of Central America. His greatest trick, though, is making the reader as empathetic and moved by the complexly portrayed characters as he is. One of the finest young writers working today.  (CAM90, $14.00)