Silences of the Heart

Portrait painter Claudia Carfax, the Vancouver-born heroine of this gently provocative debut, has been living in Europe for 45 years when a telegram informs her that her 93-year-old adoptive mother, Aunt Faith, is dying. On the flight home to Canada, Claudia begins a diary to help her take stock of her life. At 66, Claudia is a restless loner who considers herself in the ""Indian summer of her life."" But her outlook changes dramatically when she uncovers in her aunt's basement a rusty deed box and in it a cache of old correspondence between her domineering grandmother; Claudia's birth-mother, Antonia; and Claudia's uncle William, who was forced to leave England under a cloud. Drenched in atmospheric detail, the letters describe not only the hardships faced by the immigrants but also family secrets that help explain Claudia to herself. Divided between episodic journal entries and the family letters, this worldly, reflective debut includes photographs of Claudia's antecedents and an intriguing afterword in which Latham describes her own discovery of a trove of old family letters and invites the reader ""to guess what is real and how much is fiction."" (July) FYI: Latham worked as a stage manager at the Stratford-on-Avon Shakespeare Theatre and was the first woman stage director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.