Annabel

[A] powerful and important debut...about friendship, parental love and its limitations

Irish Times

Annabel is a beautiful book, brimming with heart and uncommon wisdom. Life is ambiguity and flux and mystery, and Kathleen Winter has written a gorgeous, searing love-letter to the possibilities that lie just below the surface of the everyday.

Michael Crummey

A heartbreaking tale ...Winter's novel elegantly allows for the awkward ambiguities of the situation

Marie Claire

A mesmerising combination of crisp language, deep empathy for her well-wrought characters, and a world-savvy wisdom. Annabel is an unforgettable novel

The Telegram

A powerful story...compelling and sensitively written

Stylist

An uplifting exploration of love, parenthood, and all that we become

Daily Mail

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

Glasgow Herald

Beautifully paced, sometimes shocking and never prurient

Maggie Fergusson, Intelligent Life

Funny and tender, charming and moving...a genuine pleasure to read

The Lady

It is the powerful sense of place that is the most successful element

Roz Kaveney, Times Literary Supplement

It's loneliness, not gender, that lies at the heart of Winter's novel - a confident, serious debut

Guardian

Kathleen Winter has the steadfast clarity and quietly assured talent to make this difficult subject her own...Winter has a strikingly mellifluous voice, and she has created a potent story exploring gender categorization and humanity

Independent

Kathleen Winter isn't afraid to tackle a tough subject head on. Annabel is an extraordinary novel

Daily Express

Remarkable... at once deeply moving and a powerful rallying cry

The Times

The perfect childs' voice... 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

The writing was very crisp and precise, with many beautiful descriptions

Farm Lane Books Blog

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 an astute examination of ordinary people confronting extraordinary dilemmas

Mail on Sunday

Winter clearly loves all her characters, even the hopelessly misguided men, and she lavishes compassion and metaphor on them.

Scotsman

Winter writes beautifully, and the sensational side of the story is handled elegantly

Saga Magazine