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John Leigh Walters, A Very Capable Life book cover
2010: John Leigh Walters, A Very Capable Life

2010: John Leigh Walters, A Very Capable Life

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Description

Zarah Petri was just a little girl when her family left Hungary to find a new life in Canada in the 1920s. She showed spunk and a great imagination that would serve her well as a new immigrant and young married woman. Zarah and her family lived through the Depression, and she learned to make ends meet in any way she could, even bending the law if necessary. Her son John writes this touching memoir, told in the first person, in Zarah’s own unique voice. Her remembrances are sometimes funny, sometimes sad but always entertaining.

Judges' Comments

Walters offers the story of his mother’s journey from Hungary to Canada as a feminine picaresque with the indomitable Zarah in the dual roles of heroine and storyteller. In recreating his mother as a resourceful and often hilarious character, Walters’ sustained act of literary ventriloquism captures the ingenuity and passion of the diasporic narrative in Canadian cultural history.

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Explore the works of our previous Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction winners.

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