Winter Journey

Frame won England's Betty Trask award for this haunting novel of damaged lives. The narrator is Annoele Tomlinson, sifting the past in an effort to make sense out of cataclysmic events. She recalls growing up with her glamorous, spoiled mother Laura in London. Although Laura has little time for her daughter, the child adores her and takes pride in her beautiful clothes and rich jewels. Annoele seldom sees her father Simon, a diplomat stationed in Prague, where Laura takes her to visit him just before Christmas in 1965, when Annoele is 10. On the winter journey while Simon is driving them back to London, the parents quarrel violently about Laura's lovers and create scenes at inns that result in their eviction. The fights culminate in a car crash and Simon's disappearance, which leads to an investigation into his affairs and a tragedy that marks Annoele indelibly. In a quietly controlled fashion, Frame compels the reader to feel profound compassion for Annoele and her parents, people crippled by a lack of love. (March 15p