THIS BODY

THIS BODY Laurel Doud (Little, Brown, $23.95) In her frisky, riveting debut, librarian Doud pulls off an extremely tricky premise: After dying in her sleep, Katharine Ashley, a repressed 40ish insurance agent, awakens a year later in the beautiful young body of drug addict Thisby Bennet, the black sheep of an eccentric Beverly Hills family. Bizarrely plunged into another person's life, Katharine flounders. Beyond suffering the ravages of addiction, she's alarmingly attracted to both Thisby's Hollywood producer father and charming brother. After discovering that her surviving husband and teenage children have contentedly moved on, Katharine struggles to fix Thisby's life -- and start her own afresh. With Doud's brightly visceral prose and deft sense of tragicomedy, This Body proves equally engrossing for the senses, soul, and mind. A