And I don't consciously think he doesn't exist, but it's like how the main character in a lot of books doesn't actually exist. Nobody's ever really asked me that before.

Kathleen Winter: Wayne is the only character in the story who doesn't actually exist. But shouldĪnnabel take the prize, I solemnly believe that this country's readership will, overnight - pardon my candour - grow a clue where one didn't exist before. Every book on this year's Giller shortlist has already been deemed worthy of winning by nomination alone. With guidance from brother Michael, a master at such things, such skills on display as recently as the Penguin 75th anniversary party, sister Kathleen seems more comfortable alone in a room with a relative stranger, at home in the jeans she confesses she picked up off the street one day, than in a roomful of industry people on point to step out and congratulate her on her trifecta of award nominations for her debut novel, a story, among other things, about an intersex child who is raised as a boy against the wishes of his mother.Īnnabel is nominated for the Roger's Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, this country's most lucrative and prestigious prize for fiction.

Upon entering the media room, Winter immediately launches into a tale of adaptation, the mental and physical gymnastics that come with throwing oneself into the path of conversations with people at any one of the many events she'll attend this season. As if to say, yes, I'm relieved, relieved to know that I succeeded. Towards the end of the interview, she takes it again in hand, flipping through, as if to say, yes, yes, yes. Annabel to Kathleen Winter and she's clearly moved.

Annabel by kathleen winter