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Biography & Autobiography Women

A Very Capable Life

The Autobiography of Zarah Petri

by (author) John Leigh Walters

Publisher
Athabasca University Press
Initial publish date
Dec 2009
Category
Women
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781897425428
    Publish Date
    Dec 2009
    List Price
    $24.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781897425411
    Publish Date
    Dec 2009
    List Price
    $24.95

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Description

Written in his mother’s unique voice, John Leigh Walters pushes the boundaries of memoir in A Very Capable Life, the extraordinary journey of a seemingly ordinary woman.Zarah Petri was a child when her family left Hungary to establish a new life in Canada in the 1920s. With courage and innovation, Zarah and her family survived the Depression?even if it meant breaking the law to do so. In celebrating Zarah Petri, A Very Capable Life pays homage to all “ordinary” women of the early twentieth century who challenged society’s conventions for the sake of survival.

About the author

John Leigh Walters spent a lifetime writing, producing, and hosting television programs in both the United States and Canada. Notably, with Metropolitan Opera star Vivienne Della Chiesa, he co-hosted a daily television talk show on WLW-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio. More recently he produced and hosted interview programs on the CTV outlet in the Waterloo, ON. He lives in Kitchener, ON.

John Leigh Walters' profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction

Editorial Reviews

“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.”

Tanis MacDonald, Wilfred Laurier