Review
`Her lyrical voice and her crystalline landscape are enchanting' --The New Yorker
`This haunting, powerful story is about much more than the problems of being a hermaphrodite...This is a remarkable first novel, an accomplished debut by an exciting new voice with a confident, mature style' --Daily Express
`This [is a] finely executed debut novel...Winter is excellent, too, on creating a convincing interior for her characters without sensationalising Wayne's sexuality, and there is a commendable lack of voyeurism in her exploration of his identity...As an examination of a relationship between a child and his parents, this is a moving tale, told with precision and care. As a debut, it is almost faultless' --The Glasgow Herald
`Winter clearly loves all her characters, even the hopelessly misguided men, and she lavishes compassion and metaphor on them' --The Scotsman
`This is an astute examination of ordinary people confronting extraordinary dilemmas' --The Mail on Sunday
`It is the powerful sense of place that is the most successful element' --Times Literary Supplement, Roz Kaveney
`Kathleen Winter has the steadfast clarity and quietly assured talent to make this difficult subject her own...The descriptive prose is melodically poetic, marrying spare lucidity and sage observation...She is equally adept at using her idiosyncratic eye to create charming images...Winter has a strikingly mellifluous voice, and she has created a potent story exploring gender categorization and humanity.' --Independent
`Powerful and important debut... Annabel could be seen as a polemic because of the seriousness of the issues. But Winter is as subtle as she is candid and the occasional flashes of irony are gentle... It is too simple to say that Winter has written a story about a hermaphrodite. This is a human and humane book about living and the instinct to survive and to protect. It is also about friendship, parental love and its limitations... Her brave, intelligent novel is about a journey to truth.'
--Irish Times
`A powerful story... compelling and sensitively written' --Stylist
`It's loneliness, not gender, that lies at the heart of Winter's novel- a confident, serious debut'
--Guardian
`A heartbreaking tale ...Winter's novel elegantly allows for the awkward ambiguities of the situation.' --Marie Claire
`I read Annabel in two days thus breaking all my rules about taking time with my reading and having 'thinking rests', and I can't tell you how much this book has filled my thoughts since... Just occasionally I think I have to beg and grovel and say 'pleeeeeeeeeeeease don't miss Annabel'. It will be in my top reads of 2011 no matter how many good books follow... I am very much hoping to see this on tomorrow's Orange Prize short list.' --Dovegreyreader
`A powerful story...compelling and sensitively written.'
--Stylist
`Kathleen Winter isn't afraid to tackle a tough subject head on. Annabel is an extraordinary novel...I can't help hoping that Emma Henderson or Kathleen Winter might do it (win the Orange).' --Daily Express
`Winter writes beautifully, and the sensational side of the story is handled elegantly' --Saga Magazine
`funny and tender, charming and moving...a genuine pleasure to read' --The Lady
`This haunting, powerful story is about much more than the problems of being a hermaphrodite...This is a remarkable first novel, an accomplished debut by an exciting new voice with a confident, mature style' --Daily Express
`This [is a] finely executed debut novel...Winter is excellent, too, on creating a convincing interior for her characters without sensationalising Wayne's sexuality, and there is a commendable lack of voyeurism in her exploration of his identity...As an examination of a relationship between a child and his parents, this is a moving tale, told with precision and care. As a debut, it is almost faultless' --The Glasgow Herald
`Winter clearly loves all her characters, even the hopelessly misguided men, and she lavishes compassion and metaphor on them' --The Scotsman
`This is an astute examination of ordinary people confronting extraordinary dilemmas' --The Mail on Sunday
`It is the powerful sense of place that is the most successful element' --Times Literary Supplement, Roz Kaveney
`Kathleen Winter has the steadfast clarity and quietly assured talent to make this difficult subject her own...The descriptive prose is melodically poetic, marrying spare lucidity and sage observation...She is equally adept at using her idiosyncratic eye to create charming images...Winter has a strikingly mellifluous voice, and she has created a potent story exploring gender categorization and humanity.' --Independent
`Powerful and important debut... Annabel could be seen as a polemic because of the seriousness of the issues. But Winter is as subtle as she is candid and the occasional flashes of irony are gentle... It is too simple to say that Winter has written a story about a hermaphrodite. This is a human and humane book about living and the instinct to survive and to protect. It is also about friendship, parental love and its limitations... Her brave, intelligent novel is about a journey to truth.'
--Irish Times
`A powerful story... compelling and sensitively written' --Stylist
`It's loneliness, not gender, that lies at the heart of Winter's novel- a confident, serious debut'
--Guardian
`A heartbreaking tale ...Winter's novel elegantly allows for the awkward ambiguities of the situation.' --Marie Claire
`I read Annabel in two days thus breaking all my rules about taking time with my reading and having 'thinking rests', and I can't tell you how much this book has filled my thoughts since... Just occasionally I think I have to beg and grovel and say 'pleeeeeeeeeeeease don't miss Annabel'. It will be in my top reads of 2011 no matter how many good books follow... I am very much hoping to see this on tomorrow's Orange Prize short list.' --Dovegreyreader
`A powerful story...compelling and sensitively written.'
--Stylist
`Kathleen Winter isn't afraid to tackle a tough subject head on. Annabel is an extraordinary novel...I can't help hoping that Emma Henderson or Kathleen Winter might do it (win the Orange).' --Daily Express
`Winter writes beautifully, and the sensational side of the story is handled elegantly' --Saga Magazine
`funny and tender, charming and moving...a genuine pleasure to read' --The Lady
Review
"Utterly original . . . A haunting story of family, identity, and the universal yearning to belong."--"O, The Oprah Magazine "
"[Winter's] lyrical voice and her crystalline landscape are enchanting."--"The New Yorker"
"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)
"A novel about secrets and silences . . . 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, a
"[Winter's] lyrical voice and her crystalline landscape are enchanting."--"The New Yorker"
"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)
"A novel about secrets and silences . . . 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, a
