Gutenthal Novels

Click for 

Gutenthal Speaks!

Since its publication in spring 1984 Armin Wiebe's comic novel The Salvation of Yasch Siemens is rumoured to have prevented a suicide, induced labour in an overdue pregnancy, and persuaded a major business to stay in Manitoba. It has been carried in brown paper bags, sold from under counters, and holds an unofficial record for the most copies of a novel sold in a hardware store.

The Salvation of Yasch Siemens has come close to becoming a feature film.

About Me

Manitoba's literary landscape has brought you Margaret Laurence's Morag Gunn, Adele Wiseman's Hoda, Sandra Birdsell's Minnie Pullman and Carol Shields's Daisy Goodwill. Now, here comes Oata Siemens in an operatic political cartoon novel of the struggle for Canada's soul.

When the Prime Minister declares that it's a dark day for Canada, the citizens of Gutenthal, who believe their country's fate is more important than baseball, set out to save the nation from a storm of unwanted referendum questions and foreign take-overs. Led by Oata Siemens, armed only with a carpenter's pencil and a farmers' union notebook, The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst serves up the essence of living in Canada during the tumultuous time after the death of the Meech Lake Accord.