Annabel: A Novel

Wayne had his suspicions that he wasn't quite like the other boys. He suspected that he was different. What he would later find out was the secret that those around him kept from him and just how the word different would come to define his whole existence. In a culture that celebrates the rigidity

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of roles, where men are men, and women are women, where those lines are defined and not meant to be blurred, Wayne struggles to find himself within the shades of greys that those around him have turned a blind eye towards.

Annabel was a haunting book about one person's search to find definitions that didn't exist and the questions of gender roles and how we perceive those stereotypes made for a captivating read. There were moments where my heart broke for Wayne because all he wanted was to understand who he was and yet that very knowledge was never within his reach. There were moments where I celebrated with Wayne as he stepped out in courage to search for the answers that eluded him since birth. In the end, both Wayne and I will come to understand that being different may not be the norm, but it is no less beautiful.

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This is a thoughtful and often lyrical investigation into what it means to grow up different from other children. It’s 1968 in Labrador, and Jacinta, at home and surrounded by her female friends, gives birth to a baby who has both male and female characteristics. But only the baby’s parents and

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a close friend, Thomasina, know it, so it’s straightforward enough for Treadway, the baby’s father, to decide that he’ll be raised as a boy. Wayne grows into a solitary child, close to his mother, but generally comfortable enough with his father, and all is quiet enough until Wayne reaches puberty.

I enjoyed this novel which is, in many ways, as sparse as its Labrador setting. At the end I felt that, if you were prepared to suspend disbelief (and I usually am, as a reader, happy to take a work very much on its own terms) it works well as a study of loneliness: I’m not sure that it really said much about gender ambiguity, except that it makes it difficult to find friends, something we could probably have guessed. Perhaps it’s too delicate, and a few more rough edges in the writing might have made it more immediate, made you care more deeply about the characters. Your heart should be in your mouth at Wayne’s plight, but instead you just drift through, pausing only momentarily to wonder at this or that. When I finished the book I found I was left with a sense of wistfulness and an overall feeling that my emotions had had too easy a ride for the subject matter.

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This book is one of the Giller finalists for this year, which is why I read it. The story is set in a small town, really more of a village, in Labrador where most people make their living off the land or the sea, where one’s skill as a hunter, trapper, fisherman makes all the difference in terms

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of providing for a family, where men are gone for months on the traplines, where sudden death at sea or on a river or in the forest is a reality, where few escape the limited potentials for life except to enter the military, where the “traditional” roles of boys and girls and men and women are fixed and transgressed at substantial cost. Into this world is born “Wayne”, a true hermaphrodite whose parents decide that he should be a boy and so he undergoes surgery to accomplish this and begins a life in which pills, his upbringing and his societal development are all designed to suppress his femaleness. Wayne’s mother suppresses her own sorrow in the denial, and loss, of her daughter. Wayne’s father tries to embolden his son and pushes him into male/boy pursuits and interests. Wayne feels different from boys, his interests are different, and he feels a distance, an awkwardness with his father, but he knows nothing of his “condition” until his first menses bloats his abdomen and has to be released surgically. Wayne goes through the usual vicissitudes of adolescence, exacerbated by his secret and his secret desires and urges, until he leaves Labrador and begins to deal with his true self. A constant in his life is Thomasina, a woman who is present at his birth and knows his secret, and who becomes a free spirit and sort of spiritual guide for Wayne later in life.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The story is simply, but elegantly told as it explores the societal and personal elements that stifle individuality and the ability to see a person for what he/she is in all their potential as a loving, caring person. The preconceived notions of the world drive actions; when Wayne decides to stop taking the pills that suppress his female side, he “wanted to throw the pills away and wait and see what would happen to his body. How much of his body image was accurate and how much was a construct he had come to believe? He tried to see his body objectively.” How does one engender the spirit, “a poet might have, or a scientist, or anyone who sees the world not as he or she has been told to see it, with things named and labeled. Wayne…saw everything as if it had newly appeared. He looked at each thing as if he had never seen it before….”

Labels define the world and allow a certain communication, but: “You define a tree and you do not see what it is; it becomes its name.[ Ortega y Gasset: To create a concept is to leave reality behind.]It is the same with woman and man. Everywhere Wayne looked there was one or the other, male or female, abandoned by the other. The loneliness of this cracked the street in half. Could the two halves of the street bear to see Wayne walk the fissure and not name him a beast?”

Winter uses the metaphor of bridges throughout the novel: beautiful bridges, functional and ugly bridges, bridges that give and celebrate life, bridges that are constructed and hang in mid-air completing nothing and going nowhere. So it is with life: building bridges between people and over concepts; bridges that can be beautiful in understanding and acceptance, and bridges that define any relationship or contact, but are ugly in their meaning or their blindness.

Winter also explores through Treadway, Wayne’s father, how humans have alienated themselves from the land, from understanding animals and birds and weather and survival, alienated themselves from the rhythms of the natural world that once defined us and made us part of the larger reality, where the breath of animals and the land and the wind did not need any labels. (This concept is not new, but it is also explored nicely in John Valliant: The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival.)

My quibbles with the book? I thought it was too long at 461 pages; it reads well and easily, but I thought its ideas and concepts could have been presented more tightly without losing any of their impact. Wayne’s mother plays an important role in his early life for it is she who treads the “fissure” between Wayne’s two natures, but she basically disappears in the latter part of the book and I thought she should have had more of a role, or at least a closure on her defining life experience. Some might say the ending is too pat, but sometimes life does turn out well and the bridge motif is brought to a nice conclusion.

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My expectations going into Annabel were sky-high. I was not disappointed, but I was somewhat surprised by my response. Pre-reading, I was most interested in the story of Annabel as hermaphrodite, the story of her life as she struggled to belong amidst a culture unforgiving of contradiction. But it

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was really the superb portrayal of Newfoundland and of life within its remote, hard shores that appealed to me most. Kathleen Winter’s Newfoundlander characters were so impressive: Treadway’s hard softness and simple practicality; Jacinta’s contented acceptance but secret longing; and Thomasina’s compassionate fearlessness. The isolation, loneliness, and the contradictions of setting and characters, all of these perfectly mirror Annabel’s hermaphroditism.

All of my favourite passages, the ones I underlined in my book to come back to, were about Newfoundland – the place, the life, the harshness of the isolation against the peaceful contentedness of simple life:

“The movements of the duck were the white hunter’s calligraphy.” (12)

“Women of Croydon Harbour knew what was expected of them at all times, and they did it, and the men were expected to do things too, and they did these, and there was no time left.” (36)

“then the brutal grandeur of the real Labrador took over.” (178) – how great an expression is “brutal grandeur”?

Highly recommended. Required reading for lovers of Canadian literature.

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What can I say? I loved this book. Firstly, Winter does a great job setting the scene. I have never actually been to Newfoundland or Labrador but I feel like I have walked down its streets and met its people. Secondly, the characters were real and likeable. She let them tell the story and as a

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result it flowed well.

I find east coast literature in general tends to be quite dark but this one wasn't. Winter was able to take a difficult subject and put an interesting spin on it. She managed to keep the overall tone quite light without losing the seriousness of the story. You come out of the story feeling a sense of hope for Wayne/Annabel.

This one is definitely recommended.

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Once in a while, a book appears which stays with you long after reading....."Annabel" is that kind of book.

Set in the wilds of Labrador, the novel opens with a birth in the home of Jacinta and Treadway. The newborn has both male and female genitalia, something never seen before by those present. A

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hasty decision is made to bring the newborn up as a boy, thus closing off the female part of the child, both physically and mentally. They name him Wayne. Except that female side will not be quietend, despite the efforts of Treadway to suppress it. Jacinta and her friend Thomasina, who was also present at the birth, secretly acknowledge the girl inside of Wayne. Thomasina lost her husband and daughter Annabel in a drowning accident, and she privately calls Wayne by her daughter's name.

Wayne is a sensitive and artistic child whose best friend Wally is a girl, much to his father's dismay. On reaching puberty, Wayne has an horrific experience, the true details of which are not revealed until later in the book. Given hormone treatment, Wayne tries to settle in to his life, but an increasingly absent father and a depressed mother merely add to Wayne's fragile psychological state. Leaving home, he makes his way to St John's where his mother was raised and where he makes a momentous decision which changes Wayne's life forever.

I found the first third of this novel quite difficult to read and, it wasn't until finishing it, I realised how thoughtfully this story has been written. That first part is told in a matter of fact style, reflecting the no nonsense attitude of the Labrodorians. If something goes wrong, sort it out, move on and forget it ever happened. The middle section dealing with Wayne's puberty, is more thoughtful and probing. The final part is beautifully crafted and Kathleen Winter tell's Wayne's story with grace and empathy. Her characters are wonderfully drawn in all their complexities and I found myself crying at their struggles. Small, intimate scenes are told with such longing and I found myself crying when a young intern is kind to Wayne after medical treatment. "I see you. I see there was a baby born, and her name is Annabel, and no one knows her."

This was always going to be a sensitive subject, but in Ms Winter's hands it is beautifully crafted and will be on my list of Top Ten reads for 2011.

This book was made available to me by the publisher for an honest review

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This review is going to be more of a compare-contrast of [Annabel] and Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex, a book I read earlier this year. Both tackle the rather sensitive topic of intersexuality, which has also been called hermaphroditism. The two books couldn't be further apart, IMO, in their

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delivery of the topic. Eugenides tackles the topic by anchoring it in a sweeping family saga, with a dark humour perspective and a fair bit of detailed scientific facts thrown into the mix. Winter takes a very different approach. She softens the topic, tackling it from a more intimate point of view while bringing in the landscape of a small, hunting and trapping community in Labrador to help convey the sense of isolation Wayne/Annabel experiences as he embarks on a journey of self determination. I want to call the Eugenides and Winter books the epitome of American and Canadian story-telling. Eugenides sweeping immigrant family saga is a testament to what has created America. Winter takes a truly Canadian approach by presenting a more sedate, focused story, making both the intersexuality and the Canadian culture/geography simultaneous focuses of the story. Even the violence that occurs in the story is muted... providing glimpses, but not all the graphic details of the violence. I liked that approach. It provided for a consistent overall feel of the story. Some readers may not agree, but I think the larger theme in Annabel is how Winter displays the slowly developing awareness of Wayne - and the reactions of his family and close friends - as he embarks on this journey of self discovery. This was captured really well. I think it also speaks to why it is wrong for adults, both parents and medical professionals, to make decisions - even when they think they are doing so in the best interests of the child - without fully understanding how their decisions can have an impact on the child as they develop.

Overall, a beautifully written story. Some aspects of the story may be a little hard to accept from a realism perspective but for a debut novel, I feel that its strengths outweigh any deficits/deficiencies detected.

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Annabel is a book to savour. My original intention was to give it a quick read, review and be done - however, a few pages into it - I knew I wanted to enjoy this book for a while.

A child is born in 1968 in rural Labrador - on the surface all is not well. This book shows us that who are we to say

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what is well and what is not?

Ms. Winter has created characters who look at the situation in which they find themselves, explore their thoughts and feelings about the situations, examine their options and deal with the consequences of their actions.

The characters rang true for me. Each had a different way of coping with life and each one was able to examine the story from a different perspective. Each was likable in his/her own way and Ms. Winter breathed life into them. They were all well developed and, in my opinion, this character development in the backbone of this book.

Sometimes the story is joyful, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes heartbreaking. It is definitely worth a read and I will most certainly recommend it.

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I received this book from librarything last July but allowed myself some light reading over the summer, thus creating the delay in this review.

Annabel reminded me of Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides.
"It was as the baby latched on to Jacinda's breast that Thomasina caught sight of something slight,

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flower-like; one testicle had not descended, but there was something else. She waited the eternal instant that women wait when a horror jumps out at them...As she adjusted the blanket she quietly moved the one little testicle and saw that the baby also had labia and a vagina...Then she said, "I'm going to ask the others to leave, if it's alright with you. We have something to talk about." p. 15,16

However, it is very different in many significant ways. First, Kathleen Winter has set her novel in Croyden Harbour on the southeast coast of Labrador. I have never been to Croyden Harbour, Labrador but imagine it to be an isolated, barren, windswept, desolate corner of Canada -- as opposite as possible from Canada's bustling metropolises of Toronto or Vancouver. A place where close knit communities are capable of survival despite Mother Nature's efforts, a place where everyone knows everyone's business, a place where the banality of life is a constant. The birth of a hermaphrodite in this community would have been a surprise -- had anyone but Thomasina and the parents known. The secrecy that surrounds Wayne/Annabel's birth implies the necessity of shame...something that needs to be hidden because it is somehow wrong.

I also found that Winters focuses her novel on the parents more than the child. After communing with nature, Treadway, the father, decides that they will name this child Wayne and raise him as a boy. The mother, Jacinta acquiesces but in her heart is unsure of this choice. She also regrets the decision to hide the child's condition. "She wished she had told all her friends, the day Wayne was born, that he had been born a hermaphrodite. She wished she had not locked the secret inside her, where it clamoured to get out. Treadway would just have to deal with it...This is my problem, Jacinta thought. I am dishonest. I never tell the truth about anything important. As a result, there is an ocean inside me of unexpressed truth. My face is a mask, and I have murdered my own daughter. p. 142 "But was there a place where she could live with truth instead of lies? Truth or Consequences was another TV show. She could relate to that title. You told the truth or you lived with consequences like these. If you held back truth you couldn't win. You swallowed truth and it went sour in your belly and poisoned you slowly." p. 151 Jacinte's life is full of regret and uncertainty. Treadway, for his part, is similarly tormented and confused. "Wayne had never been able to love the dog Treadway brought home the day he dismantled the Ponte Vecchio. He wanted to love the dog but couldn't, and he blamed his father...Wayne had a dog he could not love though he wanted to love it, and Treadway had a son he could not love though he wanted a son and he wanted to love that son. Father and son suffered from backed up, frozen love, and this ate Jacinta's heart." p. 239

Finally, I found that Winters' treatment of Wayne/Annabel's perspective was typically Canadian: nuanced and sensitive. She understates Wayne/Annabel's confusion which I believe is very realistic. I don't think that people navel-gaze as much as depicted by many authors. In the novel, Wayne/Annabel grapples with his/her sexual identity but also grapples with his day to day existence, his relationships, his future. As an infant, Wayne/Annabel had been taken to a hospital in St. Johns for treatment. Throughout his childhood, he is given pills which cause his/her body to grow into a masculine form. As a young man/woman, he must decide for himself whether or not to continue this course of treatment.

What I found most interesting is the idea that life is simpler if everyone is the same, if we don't have to make our own decisions, if we don't have to tread where no one has dared to tread, if we can simply follow the norm. If there is no norm to follow, life gets murky, certainty becomes uncertain, choices are scrutinized, often regretted and painful.

Annabel is not simply a story about a hermaphrodite growing up in Labrador. It is an examination of the sentient human condition -- where choices are consciously made and consequences are clearly felt.

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This was a very nice story that takes place primarily in Labrador and the author does a lovely job of taking us there. It is about a child who is born a hermaphrodite and about the life experience of that child and the people who are closest to him. "Wayne" receives an operation as a baby to

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enclose his female parts and he is given hormones his whole life and raised as a boy. He struggles his whole life with his identity. He is unaware of his condition until he is a teenager and he begins to slowly and quietly deal with the female locked away inside him. For the most part I really enjoyed this book. Two-thirds of the way through it started to become a bit dismal for my taste, but the story picked up again and I enjoyed the ending. My only real criticism comes from the emotional journey of the main character. He struggles his whole life but he seems to take it all in stride somehow. I never really felt the depths of his pain or the confusion he was so clearly feeling. You can imagine finding out that you possessed both sets of sexual organs and especially in the tumultuous teenage years. It would send most people reeling, but Wayne just seemed to suffer silently and and hardly seemed to miss a beat. I think the author missed an opportunity here for the reader to feel Wayne's anguish and to bond with him. Other than that, it is a tender and beautiful story that deals with human relationships and I loved the portrayal of Labrador. Good book!

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Annabel - I thought this was superb. Again, it wasn't the first Orange longlister to leap out of the list and entice me, but after picking up and putting down a copy on several different bookshop trips (in part captivated by the astounding cover photo and a serendipitous link to something I'd read

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on Jezebel about androgynous models), I decided to give it a go. The story is of a child born in 1970s Labrador, his childhood and adolescence as a boy and young man (Wayne) living on the edge of the wilderness, and his move to the big city and attempt to live as his true self - both Wayne and Annabel.

This is really a book about human relationships - Treadway and Jacinta (Wayne's parents) have an unusually good relationship that turns over time; Thomasina (Jacinta's friend/neighbour) projects her longing for her dead husband and daughter; Wayne's relationship with Wally - and the awful echo that both of their dreams are damaged/delayed by shards of glass wielded by judgemental bullies. I was struck at the end of the book by the depth of characters and the focus on understanding who, how and why they are as they are - and the range of characterisation which accepts multiple identities and/or ambiguity. For example, Treadway is a taciturn hunter with deep knowledge of the land, but also astoundingly well read, a sensitive husband and proves himself able to move well beyond his normal range (both geographically and emotionally) when he travels to St John to see Wayne and send him on the next stage of his life. And this complexity applies equally to minor characters - such as Wayne's headmistress who is a stickler for the rule-book during his school years but reveals herself to be sensitive and caring when they later meet in St Johns. It's not the kind of book that takes you on a journey through a 'big' plot and wraps everything up - but it is a book that makes you think about people and about decency, identity and love. It'll stay with me.

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I just finished reading [Annabel] by Kathleen Winter. I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in Canadian literature, gender, rural/northern communities, etc. This book is set in rural Labrador where a couples first born child is born a hermaphrodite. From there they

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must decide which sex to raise their child, and deal with both the medical, social, and philosophical implications.

The author did a wonderful job with the setting and characters. One thing I like in stories is being able to get into the day to day life of the characters and explore different times/places. This book does this very well. I felt all the characters were all likable in their own way. The book leads you to question your own perceptions, not only in what you would have done as the parent, but also what you would have done as the main character. I would have liked a more detailed ending, but that is true of most books :P Recommended reading! :)

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Like Wayne himself, Kathleen Winter’s novel is beautiful, but difficult. It’s remarkably well crafted, full of lovely prose and haunting images. From a pure language standpoint, it’s a delightful read, and one that reminds you what an author can do when she takes the time to choose every word

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carefully. Annabel is full of beautiful (but harsh) scenery, and beautiful (but equally harsh) characters. That, I’m afraid, is where my dissatisfaction with the book originates. The story is very cold, almost clinical, and the characters are largely without emotion. There are a lot of powerful scenes in the book that elicit feelings of both hope and despair in the reader, but we’re alone in experiencing those feelings. The characters are like disinterested actors, simply walking through a rehearsal of their lines. The equally disinterested narrator tells us what happens to them, but offers no insight into what the characters are feeling. Thematically, I suspect very much that this emotional distance is intentional, but it creates a real issue with reader engagement.As for the dilemma of Wayne/Annabel, I’m of mixed feelings there. This is absolutely a book about contradictions, and the contradiction of gender is first-and-foremost in every chapter. Annabel is not a book with a hermaphrodite character – it’s a book about a hermaphrodite character. With the exception of some medical interventions that are critical to driving the plot, however, Wayne/Annabel could just as easily have been a more traditional transgendered/transsexual character. The whole issue with the sequined bathing suit, for example, is something I particularly identified with.However, it feels as if Kathleen Winter is using the biological construct of a hermaphrodite to justify (or even excuse) the fact that she is exploring a theme of gender identity. Undoubtedly, the physical fact of being a hermaphrodite, as opposed to the psychological theories of a transsexual, likely does as much to ease most readers through the story, as it does to ease the author through challenges I would have liked to see explored. As a transgendered reader, though, it feels like a cheat – and that annoyed me.One thing I must say is that the author knows precisely how/where to end a story. Instead of a nice, tidy, storybook resolution for all involved, we’re left with a series of transitions. Kathleen Winter leaves us with a glimpse of characters who are changing, who are progressing from despair to hope . . . or, at least, the potential for hope. Like life, there are no guarantees of a happily ever after, but as readers we are made to feel comfortable enough to let the characters go, and trust them to take care of themselves.Ultimately, it’s a book I can definitely say I admire but, sadly, not one that I can say I loved.

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A beautifully written book, with sentences that bring the harsh climate of Labrador vividly to mind. Absolutely lovely writing.

This is the story of Wayne Blake, a hermaphrodite born in a remote village in 1968. His father wants him raised as a boy; his mother would be comfortable leaving the baby

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to develop in its own way. She would be comfortable having both a son and a daughter, and secretely mourns the daughter she lost as Wayne has surgery and begins a life long regime of hormone treatment.

When Wayne reaches puberty, circumstances require that he be told the truth about his gender. This book explores what gender means and the nature of being male or female.

It also explores secrets kept and shared and the impact the breakdown of honest communications can have on relationships.

I enjoyed this book, and felt great empathy for the characters. I was not bothered, as some other reviewers were, by the "emotional distance" of the narrator. I think the characters, subtly, through their actions, spoke for themselves very well. I especially like the way the ending was, really, a new beginning for several of the characters.

Excellent book.

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Annabel by Kathleen Winter is a wonderful book. Because it is about a child born with attributes of both sexes, it might be compared to Middlesex by Jeffry Eugenides (as it is in one of the blurbs from the reviews), but I've read that and while I didn't dislike it didn't have the sense of

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specialness for me that Annabel has. Annabel is both more poetic and more realistic. The poetry is in the description of the chill starkness of Labrador, Canada as well as in the description of the people who find their home there. The realism comes with the subtlety of the description of how Wayne's (Annabel/Wayne is raised as a boy) parents react to his differences, and the decisions that they make about it, how that affects their emotions and the relationships between them, and how Wayne reacts to things that for a long time he is not told about. There is also another strong player in the story, the neighbor midwife, Thomasina, who is the only other person who knows about him. She is gone for long periods, and then returns for awhile, but always keeps a connection, and is a person who acknowledges the hidden parts of him. Another is Wally Micheln, his best friend, a girl who goes through her own trauma of feeling her deepest desires lost.

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The story of Wayne Blake, born a hermaphrodite in late 1960s Labrador, to parents Jacinta and Treadway. The confusion and shame that ensues after the birth does not temper their love for the child, but it is Treadway--giving his timorous wife no say in the matter--who declares that Wayne will be

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raised as a boy. Hovering over Wayne's early life is Jacinta's friend Thomasina, who recognizes and acknowledges Wayne's femaleness the moment he emerges from the womb, and secretly bestows upon him the name Annabel, in memory of her own drowned daughter. Winter writes supple, nuanced prose laced with poetic touches enlivened by descriptions of a bleak but enchanted Labrador landscape. The narrative follows a moody and mystical path, resonating with spiritual awareness when Thomasina's dead husband and daughter are invoked, and when Wayne's father Treadway navigates the natural world in his shrewd, plodding manner. But the story belongs to Wayne, normal in every way save a conflicted identity that never lets him rest. A beautiful and memorable novel.

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The aspect of this book that makes it most beautiful to me is the subtlety of the characters and the prose. Situations that I haven't the faintest idea what it would be like to be in are painted with great empathy, precision and detail but made to feel familiar, never made to sound far away or

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overly exotic. It's incredible the way that Kathleen Winter always sounds so natural, the prose feels alive like the characters or the setting. It's very rare for writing to feel this heartfelt and yet simple for four hundred and sixty pages. The main character is brilliantly real, and I am certain that many people will find Wayne to be one of the select cast of characters that remain embedded in your subconscious for years after you finish the book.

I got this book out of the school library because my friends were all on a school trip and I didn't have anything to read. Little over a week later, I am infinitely grateful for me happening to pick this up.

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In 1968, a baby was born to Jacinta and Treadway Blake, in a small Labrador trapping village. The birth was attended by a few village women, all close friends. One woman, Thomasina, noticed something unusual right away: the baby had both male and female genitalia. She was the only one outside the

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family who knew, and supported Jacinta as she struggled to accept what this would mean to them, and to the baby. Treadway decided the baby would be raised as a boy, and while Jacinta felt otherwise, she would not go against her husband. From that moment on the baby was known as Wayne, although Thomasina often called him "Annabel" in private.

Jacinta wished she could raise Wayne as both son and daughter, and only vaguely understood the challenges this could pose for Wayne as he grew up. Treadway desperately wanted a traditional, masculine son, and despaired at Wayne's more feminine interests. As a boy, Wayne was ignorant of the medical details, and knew only that he has to take special vitamins. He felt vaguely different from the other boys he knew, and his closest friend was a girl. While Wayne's medical treatment was costly, the more devastating impact was emotional. Jacinta and Treadway are unable to share their feelings with each other, and gradually this takes a toll. Wayne found it increasingly difficult to relate to either of them, and life only became more difficult as he matured and struggled to find his true self.

Kathleen Winter drew me into this story gradually, and skillfully. It wasn't a page-turner, but I was surprised to find myself emotionally caught up in this book. I despaired at Jacinta and Treadway's broken relationship, and each response to the family tension. My heart wrenched over the conflict between Treadway and Wayne, especially when Treadway's fears led him to destroy something very dear to Wayne. I also felt very sad for Wayne, who had a secret no one could understand, and coped with so much emotional trauma. As he approached adulthood, Wayne began to understand and accept himself, and I closed the book knowing his life would never be easy, but there were glimmers of hope for his future.

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Annabel is an insightful psychological story about differences, differences between people, between environments, between the sexes, between those with vision and those without. I'd recommend it to anyone. I would have given it a 5 star rating if Kathleen Winter hadn't kind of derailed the novel

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with what I think was a physical impossibility. Aside from a temporary detour from her story about the ability to live with ambiguity, I found the story very realistic, a good portrait of humanity and yearning.

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In 1968, a baby was born to Jacinta and Treadway Blake. This takes place in a remote town in Labrador. The baby is born a hermaphrodite. Only the parents and one trusted neighbour are aware of the situation. The father wishes to raise him as a boy - Wayne Blake. His mother wishes to secretly

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embrace his female side - Annabel. As time goes on - Wayne realizes slowly and subtley that somehow he does not feel comfortable in his body.

At times I felt that the story could have proceeded at a faster pace - but that slow pace is part of the magic and feeling of Labrador, I suspect. One gets a real feel for Labrador in days gone by - and at times the prose is nearly lyrical. Though a slow moving book in places - the story does move along through Wayne's school days, high school days -and further.

The story is also a study of what makes us female or what makes us male - and what we have in common with both sexes.

The ending is most satisfying - at least for me - though no defiinite answers are found.

A very readable book, another wonderful look into Canadian living-and a most interesting topic for a book to delve into. I highly reccomend this wonderful read!

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This is a beautifully written novel about an unusually difficult medical condition. When Jacinta and Treadway's only child is born with hermaphroditism, they are compelled to make a difficult decision about the child's gender identity. The challenges that they and their child encounter are

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heartbreaking. There is a pervasive and haunting sense of sadness and loneliness in parts of this book, and a very poignant message about acceptance. I will remember this book for quite awhile.

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Beautifuly written book about a hermaphrodite in Labrador. Author was able to convey all the questions and feelings of a person completely lost and wondering what was going on.

I really enjoyed this book about a hermaphodite living in a rural environement. The development of the characters was great and the writing was elegant. I loved the father-child relationship and how it became a story in itself and I found myself really liking the dad. I wish there would be a sequal

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to this!

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It's hard to believe when you read this book that this is Kathleen Winter's first novel. It is very well written and appears to be written by a veteran author. Her characterizations are quite wonderful, and her protagonist (Wayne/Annabel) is very realistic. As I was reading I couldn't help but

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wonder how she knew what growing up in a small remote Labrador village with all these hidden secrets like Wayne has must be very difficult, and she seems to have captured all Wayne's uncertainty and doubts masterfully. Wayne's father Treadway is a very strong character. He is a man who is very independent and at one with nature. Every thing to Treadway is either black or white, so he doesn't know how to deal with his unique son. He makes a decision to raise Wayne as a boy, and spends all of Wayne's growing up years trying to drill masculinity into him. We see a growth in Treadway as this novel progresses as well as in Wayne. A very difficult book to read in some ways because of the subject matter and because of the loneliness of Wayne and his mother, but a book that is well worth reading. There is a depth to this book that is quite astonishing.

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