A wry tribute to a lost way of life and time in Beijing. Kidd writes with humor and sweet nostalgia of the privileged and eccentric Lu family into which he marries in grand style, a last vestige of a crumbling way of life in Peking. Originally published in 1988, Kidd describes his return to China many decades after the revolution in the last third of the book. With an introduction by John Lanchester, whose most recent novel is Fragrant Harbor.  (CHN264, $15.95)