MAKE ME AN OFFER and A KID...

MAKE ME AN OFFER and A KID FOR TWO FARTHINGS by Wolf Mankowitz, illustrated by Leonard Rosoman and James Boswell (Andre Deutsch/ Trafalgar Square: $13.95). Mankowitz’s short novels capture the ambience of two segments of postwar London. “Make Me an Offer” focuses on the practices and obsessions of antique dealers at a time when the British were eagerly selling their cultural patrimony to rich Americans. The narrator, who trades in English pottery, recognizes the arbitrary nature of his calling: “It’s a funny game, this dealing. Nothing’s worth anything until you sell it, and then it’s worth whatever you can get for it.” But his search for a fabulously rare green Wedgewood vase provides pleasant, diverting reading. “A Kid for Two Farthings,” which takes its title from a traditional Passover song, explores the world of a lonely little boy who buys a deformed baby goat that he believes is a unicorn. This wistful fable set in a lower-class Jewish neighborhood was made into a gentle film by Carol Reed in 1955.