FoRbidden love

Klein has burned bridges with PM, Gillingham says

One mayoral candidate accused another of writing a column so critical it could compromise his ability to work with the federal government.

Gillingham in lead with decided voters

A cloud of uncertainty is hanging over Winnipeg as October’s municipal election nears.

Three months after a poll showed more than 40 per cent of Winnipeggers wanted to see someone other than current mayor Scott Gillingham elected, a new Abacus Data poll indicates more than half of Winnipeg voters are undecided heading into next month’s civic election.

Of decided voters, 55 per cent favour Gillingham compared to 23 per cent for former councillor and provincial cabinet minister Kevin Klein and 11 per cent for funeral director Mike Vogiatzakis.

Of all respondents, just over 50 per cent said they were unsure while 13 per cent said they will not vote.

Family account spiced with magic realism, geopolitical intrigue and a ghost story

Tom Lin’s second novel Babylon, South Dakota moves beyond a historical account of an immigrant family’s struggle, delightfully blending and bending genres.

Lin is a Chinese-born novelist whose family emigrated to the U.S. when he was four years old. His debut novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, making him the youngest ever recipient of that award. He earned a PhD in English from the University of California Davis and is currently an assistant professor of English and creative writing at the University of Iowa.

Babylon, South Dakota takes place in an unspecified time period that can be understood to be during the Mao era — likely the 1950s or ’60s. A young Chinese couple, the Hsuis, immigrate to the rural community that gives the book its title. They take the names Saul and Mei and settle on a 160-acre homestead left to them by a distant relative.

Saul’s dream is to breed and sell chrysanthemums from seeds he brought from China, while Mei wants to raise livestock. They speak no English, know nothing of life in the United States, are unprepared for the harshness of winter and the isolation of the farm and bring nothing with them except some gold, which Mei hides around the house for emergencies. Their only link to the outside world is a discarded and marginally functioning TV set, which Saul rescues and rigs up.

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: After 12:15 a.m., there are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The moon is in Capricorn.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

This is a tricky day. Don’t be too ambitious. It’s totally OK to kick back and relax. But be aware that communications with parents and authority figures might be confused, vague or subject to misunderstandings. Nevertheless, romance is sweet and cosy!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Fictional account of real-life boarding school pair a heartfelt, memorable read

Emma Donoghue, Irish-Canadian author of the hugely popular bestselling novel Room (and many more), has produced a beautiful and engaging new novel that takes place in York, England, in the early 1800s. What is remarkable is how readable and “unputdownable” it is, despite its being based on a lot of research.

Learned by Heart is written entirely from the point of view of the real-life Eliza Raine, born in India to Dr. William Raine, an Englishman, and “his woman,” a native of India. The doctor sent Eliza and her older sister Jane to England to be educated, but he died a couple of years later, leaving them to live with his York friends, the Duffins.

When the novel begins, the year is 1805; Eliza is 14 and enrolled in the Manor boarding school “for young ladies.” The 40 students are divided into Seniors, Middles and Juniors; Eliza is a Middle. One of the strengths of the book is the dialogue — the many scenes in which a group of students chat among themselves and the scenes that take place in class. The teachers seem approachable enough, but are quick to impose demerits and punishment of many kinds.

Eliza is given an attic room in the north wing of the school, set off from where most of the girls are. Another girl is assigned there — Anne Lister, who wants to be called by her last name. She is rather boyish in looks, reads a lot of books and soon becomes the most outspoken student — “erudition just rises off Lister like smoke,” Raine observes. Some of the girls are offended by her remarks, but Eliza believes Lister has no intention to offend. “[T]he flow of her thought is as urgent and unstoppable as a spring of water,” Donoghue writes.