Admired novelist Hilma Wolitzer is breaking a 12-year silence with a two-book deal she has just signed with Ballantine editor-in-chief Nancy Miller. The first book is The Doctor's Daughter, the story of a middle-aged and unhappily married "book doctor," daughter of a famous but failing father, who is caught in a probably doomed affair with a younger writer. Miller preempted for North American rights from agent Henry Dunow at Dunow & Carlson, and will publish a year from now. Wolitzer, an award-winning writer and creative writing teacher, is also the author of Hearts, Ending and Tunnel of Love.