by Judy Gerstel
An enticing glimpse at a little shtetl on the Canadian prairie.
Holding My Breath by Sidura Ludwig (Shaye Areheart, $23), a coming-of-age story set in Winnipeg’s shtetl-like North End in the middle of the 20th century, brings to life a time and place with such detail, both sensual and factual, that someone who grew up in that time and place — like this reviewer, born on the very same street where the protagonist lives with her family — finds herself on nearly every page.