Minister Without Portfolio

As with Caught, the most dramatic element of Winter's novel—a tragic mishap among military contractors in Afghanistan—is almost a red herring, setting the stage for a story back home in Newfoundland that could hardly be more mundane—a house is built, property is disputed, two people fall in love and try to stay there—but that gathers a stirring power by its end. As the main character progresses, in both his understanding of his community's rural ethics and his romance, whose depths exceed the lovers' words, you might even be reminded, dare I say it, of the great love story of Kitty and Levin in Anna Karenina.