Her grief has some sort of penumbra, like an aura, and Im caught in it, in some hidden and corresponding sadness in myself. So our heroine describes a grieving mother whos burst into her Syracuse, New York crime lab. New in paperback, Diana Abu-Jabers Origin (Norton, $14.95) follows fingerprint specialist Lena Dawson as she investigates a series of crib deaths attributed to SIDS. The crime tale represents a sharp turn from Abu-Jabers Crescent, Arabian Jazz, and numerous op-eds, which deal with the Arab-American experience. But in cracking the possible murder case, Dawson must confront her own flaws and unanswered questions about personal origin. (As a child, she wasnt told by her aloof guardians how she came from foster care, apparently discovered in the jungle after a plane crash, where she was cared for by an ape!) Abu-Jaber, a writer-in-residence at Portland State University, keeps the reader with Dawson to the very endor, perhaps, the very beginning. University Book Store, 4326 University Way, 634-3400, www.bookstore.washington.edu. Free. 7 p.m. KATE SILVER
Mon., May 5, 7 p.m., 2008
