Annabel

“Absorbing, earnest . . . Beautifully written.” —Stacey D’Erasmo, The New York Times Book Review

“Affecting . . . Winter possesses a rare blend of lyrical brilliance, descriptive power, and psychological and philosophical insight. Her way with fate and sadness recalls The World According to Garp, without the cute irony. A compelling, gracefully written novel about mixed gender that sheds insight as surely as it rejects sensationalism. This book announces the arrival of a major writer.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[Winter’s] lyrical voice and her crystalline landscape are enchanting.” —The New Yorker

"Annabel is a mature and beautifully-crafted debut, full of savagely clear-eyed observation and startling compassion. Kathleen Winter has brought us a mesmerising portrait of a remarkable land and its remarkable inhabitants." —A. L. Kennedy

“A novel about secrets and silences . . . Annabel is less about chromosomal anomaly than it is about human potential, for cruelty and neglect and ignorance as much as for tolerance and generosity and strength. What Winter has achieved here is no less a miracle than the fact of Wayne’s birth. Read it because it’s a story told with sensitivity to language that compels to the last page, and read it because it asks the most existential of questions. Stripped of the trappings of gender, Winter asks, what are we?” —Christine Fischer Guy, The Globe and Mail

“Sincere . . . The novel’s moral of acceptance and understanding is sure to win Winter many fans.” —Publishers Weekly

“Beautifully observed . . . Reminiscent of Middlesex, Winter’s treatment of such a delicate issue is amazing and incredibly engaging. Her novel is written with immense sensitivity and grace, not to be missed.” —Jim Piechota, Bay Area Reporter

“[A] fascinating debut novel . . . Annabel is a novel about divisions, not only between the sexes but also between social classes and, perhaps most crucially, ways of being. . . . Both the fear and the beauty [of Wayne’s condition] are given vivid expression in this finely crafted novel.” —Barbara Carey, The Star (Toronto)

“[A] beautiful novel . . . Lyrical . . . [Winter] captures the way children simultaneously understand and don’t understand, the way parents simultaneously protect and harm their children, the way the truth both imprisons us and sets us free. She embodies these paradoxes and breathes new life into them. . . . Annabel is a novel that evokes deep emotion . . . Simple, touching, real, absolutely convincing and sympathetic in its portrayal of well-intended people in their attempts to deal with a person who defies the most basic categorization: the first question we ask when we hear a baby has been born.”—Daniel Stolar, The Rumpus

“Stunning . . . Winter creates an opening, an opportunity to consider how society looks upon those it considers marginal, and how it sees those it considers ‘normal.’ . . . Annabel is less about gender divides and more about the gossamer lines that connect one to another. A book like this, its topic and beautiful language, the unrelenting sorrow, Winter’s insightful characterizations and utter sensitivity, is difficult to do justice to with these few words. I simply want to tell people: read this book. Read it though you know little or nothing about its subject or the author. It will open you up. It will change you.”
—Carla Maria Lucchetta, The Ottawa Citizen

“Dramatic, thematically rich . . . [with] skillful prose . . . An impressive first novel.” —Quill & Quire

“Annabel is a beautiful book, brimming with heart and uncommon wisdom. Life is ambiguity and flux and mystery and Winter has written a gorgeous, searing love-letter to the possibilities that lie just below the surface of the everyday.” —Michael Crummey, author of the Canadian bestseller, River Thieves

“A mesmerizing combination of crisp language, deep empathy for her well-wrought characters, and a world-savvy wisdom. . . . [Winter] shows us the humanity that overrides gender and age, and the basic human traits and desires that unite us all. . . . Destined to be one of the biggest novels out of Newfoundland this year.” —Chad Pelley,The Telegram (St. John's, Canada)

“A beautiful book, lyrical and compelling . . . I have never read such an intimate portrait of a person struggling to live inside a self that the world sees as a dreadful mistake.” —Katherine Govier, The National Post (Canada)

“[An] aching tale of . . . identity, acceptance, and family. . . . Annabel is a stunning and stirring debut.” —Stephen Clare, The Chronicle Herald

“An astounding achievement . . . Remarkably lucid and forthright . . . Wonderfully exhilarating . . . In Winter’s deft hands, Labradorbecomes a magical land of mystical wildlife and magnetic earth. . . . Finely observed detail and gut-wrenching honesty, together with some rich characters and a perfectly rendered world, make Annabel a rare treat.” —Debbie Patterson, Winnipeg Free Press