Annabel is the debut novel of Kathleen Winter, a Canadian author.
In the late 1960s, a child is born in Croydon Harbor, Labrador a bleak but beautiful location where there is a rigid and codified way of life that does not acknowledge or recognize much outside of the ‘established norm.’
The child is born mix-gendered: both female and male. The decision is made to raise the child as a male, suppressing the female side through medication and emphasis upon male role expectations. The mother mourns the loss of her daughter, the father, awkward and distant, makes attempts to pattern male behavior (Labrador style). Meanwhile, the child has no idea of the dual-identity and experiences much physical and emotional confusion. He finally learns of the medical reality of intersexuality as an adolescent and eventually leaves the restrictive environment of Croydon Harbor to discover who he really is and to find acceptance.
This is well written literary fiction - an unusual story, told with insight and sensitivity. The issues are not sensationalized, instead they provoke thoughtful discussion of who we are, what we feel about who we are, and how society sees us; it is a most insightful novel about identity acceptance.
Recommended for mature teens and adults.
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