ECHOES OF WAR

Westall explores the idea that war's effects are felt far from the battle and continue long after the war has passed. In ``After the Funeral,'' a pilot on a quiet mail run suddenly finds himself amid a spectral fleet of bombers; a young wartime beachcomber with a shirtful of ``Gifts from the Sea'' comes upon a woman's corpse; in ``The Making of Me,'' a forbidding old man sharing his war memories sparks his grandson's fascination with ancient history; Bill, 14, is wonderstruck when he meets a reclusive painter, ``Adolf,'' and his cats Hermann and Heinrich; and the men of Birsby struggle to control ``Zakky,'' a teenage Polish refugee who is burning to kill Nazis. With the apparent simplicity of the writing masking the underlying emotion, each story has a mild, quiet air that makes its moment of revelation even more dramatic. As always, Westall's appeal is deep if not broad. (Fiction/Short stories. 12-16)