No one paid much attention to Armin Wiebe's writing until he stumbled into the voice of Yasch Siemens, a voice he has riffed off in numerous ways in his Gutenthal novels, some of the stories in Armin's Shorts, in his stage plays The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz, Wine and Little Breads, and The Recipe.
…Wiebe includes, in this wildly improbable fiction, an undeniably realistic, harrowing account of the smouldering hatreds, stifled desires, and even insanity that exist beneath the veneer of Gutenthal. It is this depth beneath the layers of surface brilliance that makes Murder in Gutenthal an even better book than Wiebe’s hilarious The Salvation of Yasch Siemens. —— Edna Froese, NeWest Review
— Shortlisted: Mcnally Robinson Book of the Year
Armin Wiebe is a comic storyteller without equal in Canada today. Please hold your sides while laughing. —— Robert Kroetsch
Armin Wiebe does for Gutenthal…what Stephen Leacock did for Mariposa and its inhabitants. The results are uproarious and touching, sidesplittingly anarchic and wistful. —— Patrick Dunn
Shortlisted: Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour The Books in Canada Best First Novel Award
InThe Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst, Armin Wiebe returns to Gutenthal, the fictional town of previous novels, a community that comes with its own extensive family tree, phrase book, and "Beetfield Chorus". This "Gutenthal Galaxy" is comprised of some of the more colourful creations to have bounded across Canadian pages in a while.
This is the Canada of the free trade deal, of dubious politicians and speeches that have an odd if only slightly skewed ring to them:
"It's not the size of your caucus, it's how you use it."
"I make deals therefore I am."
——Rita Donovan, Books in Canada
— Shortlisted: McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award
Five Stars! Amazon.com
"Wiebe's best book. Beautifully crafted and surprising."
-Daniel S. Cruz
It's like an intricately crafted doily, beautiful and functional at the same time, something to be treasured.
—Janine Tschunky
My goodness, it is masterful. You have captured Susch's deepest thoughts and feelings, you take me to southern Manitoba in the 1920s and to Russia in the revolution. It is wry, it is poignant, it is wonderful.
— Harriet Zaidman, author of City on Strike
—Shortlisted: Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction
