Michael Winter's Minister Without Portfolio is a heart-tugging novel about one man's attempt to reinvent himself and reconnect with a community after a tragedy in which he is complicit. Henry Hayward is called the minister without portfolio by his good friend Tender Morris because he's "not committed to anything but he's got his hand in everything." When Tender dies in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan trying to protect Henry, the nickname haunts him into action. Returning to Newfoundland, Henry begins a tentative courtship with Tender's pregnant girlfriend, Martha Groves, and attempts to establish himself as a giving and needed member of the community.
Winter captures the icy and vast beauty of Newfoundland and the effort needed to make lasting human connections amid its isolation. He delineates the fumbling vulnerability of Martha and Henry as they try to build a relationship out of the ashes. In Henry, Hayward has created that rare literary figure, a genuinely decent man whose mistakes are rooted in a reluctance to hurt others rather than overt ill will. While every scene sings and the characters and settings are evocative and easy to disappear into, Winter also has an understated wisdom to his worldview.
Minister Without Portfolio is an effortless read, enjoyable for pure pleasure but also a lasting statement of how we build relationships in this world, of the small, brave gestures of the heart that bring healing after time. --Donald Powell, freelance writer