THE TRANSIT OF VENUS<i> By Shirley Hazzard (Penguin: $8.95) </i>

Shirley Hazzard’s sensual novel of love and lust evokes the power of emotion to eclipse reason, as the planet Venus may cast a shadow across the face of the sun. Two orphaned Australian sisters, Caroline and Grace Bell, come to London to pursue their separate but linked destinies. Grace opts for a steady domesticity that is simultaneously reassuring and confining, while Caroline pursues romance, risking security for more intense passion. Hazzard’s intriguing characters move like the clockwork components of an orerry through a series of surprising yet logical revelations.