In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador in the far north-east of Canada, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once.
Only three people share the secret – the baby’s parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbour, Thomasina.
Together the adults make a difficult decision: to go through surgery and raise the child as a boy named Wayne.
But as Wayne grows up within the hyper-male hunting culture of his father, his shadow-self – a girl he thinks of as ‘Annabel’ – is never entirely extinguished, and indeed is secretly nurtured by the women in his life.
Told with great elegance and empathy,Annabel is the powerfully moving story of one personÂ’s struggle to discover the truth and the strength to change, to find tenderness in a severe and unforgiving land.