Synopses & Reviews
A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection for Spring 2014 A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
2015 PEN/Hemingway Award, Finalist
Longlisted for the 2014 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize
Lambda Literary Award, Finalist
Publishing Triangle's Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, Finalist
"[A] sharply written debut...A coming-of-age tale for our time." —Seattle Times
At birth, Peter Huang is given the Chinese name Juan Chaun, “powerful king.” To his parents, newly settled in small-town Ontario, he is the exalted only son in a sea of daughters, the one who will finally fulfill his immigrant father’s dreams of Western masculinity. Peter and his sisters grow up in an airless house of order and obligation, though secrets and half-truths simmer beneath the surface. At the first opportunity, each of the girls lights out on her own. But for Peter, escape is not as simple as fleeing his parents’ home. Though his father crowned him “powerful king,” Peter knows otherwise. He knows he is really a girl. With the help of his far-flung sisters and the sympathetic souls he finds along the way, Peter inches ever closer to his own life, his own skin, in this darkly funny, emotionally acute, stunningly powerful debut.
“Sensitively wrought . . . For Today I Am a Boy is as much about the construction of self as the consequences of its unwitting destruction—and what happens when its acceptance seems as foreign as another country.” —New York Times Book Review
“Subtle and controlled, with flashes of humor and warmth.” —Slate
“Keeps you reading. Told in snatches of memory that hurt so much they have the ring of truth.” —Bust magazine
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)
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, what are we?” The Globe and Mail
Review
“Absorbing, earnest...Beautifully written.” The New York Times Book Review
Review
“[Winter’s] lyrical voice and her crystalline landscape are enchanting.” The New Yorker
Review
“Utterly original...A haunting story of family, identity, and the universal yearning to belong.” O, The Oprah Magazine
Review
“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.” Bay Area Reporter
Synopsis
Kathleen Winter's luminous debut novel is a deeply affecting portrait of life in an enchanting seaside town and the trials of growing up unique in a restrictive environment.
In 1968, into the devastating, spare atmosphere of the remote coastal town of Labrador, Canada, a child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor fully girl, but both at once. Only three people are privy to the secret — the baby's parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbor and midwife, Thomasina. Though Treadway makes the difficult decision to raise the child as a boy named Wayne, the women continue to quietly nurture the boy's female side. And as Wayne grows into adulthood within the hyper-masculine hunting society of his father, his shadow-self, a girl he thinks of as "Annabel," is never entirely extinguished.
Kathleen Winter has crafted a literary gem about the urge to unveil mysterious truth in a culture that shuns contradiction, and the body's insistence on coming home. A daringly unusual debut full of unforgettable beauty, Annabel introduces a remarkable new voice to American readers.
Synopsis
A literary gem, Winter's luminous debut novel is a deeply affecting portrait of life in an enchanting seaside town and the trials of growing up unique in a restrictive environment.
Synopsis
A fiercely assured debut novel about four second-generation Chinese sisters, one of whom happens to be a boy
Synopsis
Long-listed for the 2014 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Spring 2014 selection
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
“Peter is a fully realized, fully unique character — one who will find his way into the hearts of readers everywhere.” — Bustle
“[A] sensitively wrought debut.” — New York Times Book Review
At birth, Peter Huang is given the Chinese name Juan Chaun, “powerful king.” To his parents, new to small-town Ontario, he is the exalted only son in a sea of daughters, the one who will finally fulfill his immigrant father’s dreams of Western masculinity.
Peter and his sisters grow up in an airless house of order and obligation, though secrets and half-truths simmer beneath the surface. At the first opportunity, each of the girls lights out on her own. But for Peter, escape is not as simple as fleeing his parents’ home. Though his father crowned him “powerful king,” Peter knows otherwise. He knows he is really a girl.
Darkly funny, emotionally acute, stunningly powerful, Kim Fu’s debut novel is a “coming of age tale for our time” (Seattle Times) that lays bare the costs of forsaking one's own path, a “heartbreaking” (Cosmopolitan) examination of how we find our true selves.
Synopsis
Peter Huang and his sisters—elegant Adele, shrewd Helen, and Bonnie the bon vivant
—grow up in a house of many secrets, then escape the confines of small-town Ontario and spread from Montreal to California to Berlin. Peters own journey is obstructed by playground bullies, masochistic lovers, Christian ex-gays, and the ever-present shadow of his Chinese father.
At birth, Peter had been given the Chinese name juan chaun, powerful king. The exalted only son in the middle of three daughters, Peter was the one who would finally embody his immigrant father's ideal of power and masculinity. But Peter has different dreams: he is certain he is a girl.
Sensitive, witty, and stunningly assured, Kim Fus debut novel lays bare the costs of forsaking ones own path in deference to one laid out by others. For Today I Am a Boy is a coming-of-age tale like no other, and marks the emergence of an astonishing new literary voice.
"A unique and mesmerizing story populated with characters who are fragile and strong all at once, who invite us to become them as they struggle with who they ultimately are. An important and rewarding read." — Steven Galloway, author of The Cellist of Sarajevo
Synopsis
A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection for Spring 2014 A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice 2015 PEN/ Hemingway Award, Finalist Longlisted for the 2014 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize Lambda Literary Award, Finalist Publishing Triangle's Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, Finalist
At birth, Peter Huang is given the Chinese name Juan Chaun, “powerful king.” To his parents, newly settled in small-town Ontario, he is the exalted only son in a sea of daughters, the one who will finally fulfill his immigrant father’s dreams of Western masculinity. Peter and his sisters grow up in an airless house of order and obligation, though secrets and half-truths simmer beneath the surface. At the first opportunity, each of the girls lights out on her own. But for Peter, escape is not as simple as fleeing his parents’ home. Though his father crowned him “powerful king,” Peter knows otherwise. He knows he is really a girl. With the help of his far-flung sisters and the sympathetic souls he finds along the way, Peter inches ever closer to his own life, his own skin, in this darkly funny, emotionally acute, stunningly powerful debut.
“Sensitively wrought . . . For Today I Am a Boy is as much about the construction of self as the consequences of its unwitting destruction—and what happens when its acceptance seems as foreign as another country.”—New York Times Book Review
“Subtle and controlled, with flashes of humor and warmth.”—Slate
“Keeps you reading. Told in snatches of memory that hurt so much they have the ring of truth.”—Bust magazine
About the Author
Kathleen Winter's
Annabel was a
New York Times Editors Choice, short-listed for The Orange Prize for Fiction, and a finalist for all three of Canada's major literary awards: The Scotiabank Giller Prize, Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction. Her first collection of short stories,
boYs, was the winner of both the Winterset Award and the 2006 Metcalf-Rooke Award. A long-time resident of St. John's, Newfoundland, Winter now lives in Montreal.
Visit her blog at kathleenwinter.livejournal.com