Val B Russell reviews Kathleen Winter’s Annabel: “We live in a world that is, at its very biological core, based on gender and the differences inherent within. From conception to birth our female or maleness is the central focus of how we will be defined by our parents, peers and ultimately society as a whole. Boxes are ticked on birth certificates and other government forms, names are chosen in accordance with male or female determinations and we are assigned gender specific roles based on our genitalia and outward appearance. But what if we were born with both genders equally evident physically? What if the atmosphere into which we arrived was fearful and unforgiving of the difference? In her novel Annabel (Grove Press, 2011), Kathleen Winter courageously tackles much more than the complexity of the hermaphrodite, she challenges our notion of what gender truly means at the fundamental level of our humanity and she does it with the deft care and sensibility of an artisan. (…)” Read more from this review.