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Those Are Pearls
The first time Harry Short rides into battle—in 1895, at the beginning of the Boer War—it’s to win the heart of Margaret Roll. Nineteen years later, at the start of World War One, he enlists again, this time to escape her. With Margaret, Harry creates a family rich in character whose story spans generations and continents, traveling from Cape Town to Winnipeg to Flanders’ Fields. Harry’s family arrives to Canada in 1910 as prairie homesteaders, witnesses the Winnipeg Riot of 1919, survives the Great Flood of 1950. They marry farmers, bootleggers, and communists, are investigated by the police, perform acts of battlefield heroism, are torpedoed. From the seeds of an impoverished boilermaker’s adoration for a rich doctor’s daughter grows a sweeping story of a family whose personal passions are woven into the tapestry of world history.
252 pages, Paperback
Published June 15, 2026
About the author
André Narbonne
6 books19 followersA marine engineer by first trade, André Narbonne was living out of his duffel bag when he arrived in Halifax on a damaged tanker in the mid-eighties. He completed two degrees in English at Dalhousie University and a PhD at the University of Western Ontario. He teaches English & Creative Writing at the University of Windsor.
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Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Harry Short hadn’t felt loved since the day his parents died, certainly not from his indifferent uncle. His best friend for years was a puppy he rescued when a farm labourer culled this unwanted puppy from an unexpected litter. He later moved to Cape Town to apprentice for a boilermaker.
On the way to work one day, he spotted her, a young woman with a slightly bent spine who was standing at the edge of an expansive property. “Their eyes found something recognizable in each other.” Having never been in love before, his goal was simple. If he became a decorated war hero, he might win the favor of Margaret Roll, daughter of the prosperous doctor. Harry Short fought against the Boers in a skirmish known as Jameson’s Raid, an insurrection with the intention to enter Transvaal and overthrow the government.” He was a young teenager willing to risk his life ‘under the flimsiest of motivations’.” He did, however, score a victory with Dr. Roll and the young couple married and moved to Canada.
Harry refused to request assistance from Margaret’s father. They homesteaded, living in a narrow, poorly ventilated house. They had no transportation beyond an old, borrowed horse. Margaret complained about living in abject poverty. In 1914, Harry lied on his enlistment papers and went off to war to get away from Margaret.. “The trenches had sapped his humour…had taken away his easy step.” Upon his return, Harry did not discuss the war. Housewives did. “The laundry line was as good as a telephone wire.”
Ruth Short’s childhood in Winnipeg’s French Quarter in 1914, was filled with “modernity, buzzing, clanking” of horse and buggy, automobiles and electric streetcars. Harry preferred silence. Was returning home from war freedom or a prison? He did not demonstrate any affection. Margaret looked after Ruth “because it is her duty…assumed that all love is fiction…(and) viewed abandonment as the only constant in love.”
After meeting Frank Good, musician, Ruth and her two sisters go to a club to listen to his jazz band. “Half the time (Frank) was happy. Half the time crippled with doubt…He knew where he’d find peace. In love. “Frank thought Ruth to be loving but independent…’a person with many rooms…the architecture of their existence. All of her rooms were filled…’.” Why did he abandon her? “The handcuffs he found himself in were of his own design.”
It would seem that duty rather than love was threaded though generations of this family. Granddaughter Margaret Good stated that “my mother and grandmother believed in duty…I can find her offering no love…It’s her duty to raise me, my duty to be raised.”
World events required duty as well. In 1939, Europe was armed for war. “The war arrives in the absences…throughout Winnipeg, children and grandparents replace adults. The mailman becomes a mailboy…The milkman, now a grandfather, makes morning deliveries door-to-door. As early as 1939, people go missing…rations have a ‘distinct wartime absence of flavour.” In 1950, when the Red River overflowed, sandbag dikes were breached, floods destroyed bridges. When the waters receded, those who survived made their attempt to start over.
“Those Are Pearls” by Andre Narbonne is a snapshot in the lives of several generations of the Short family from Cape Town, South Africa in 1896 to Winnipeg, Canada in 1950. The backdrop of history as well as family dynamics delivers a thought-provoking read of literary fiction..
Thank you Andre Narbonne and Aimee Dunn@ Palimpsest Press for the Print ARC in exchange for an honest review.
On the way to work one day, he spotted her, a young woman with a slightly bent spine who was standing at the edge of an expansive property. “Their eyes found something recognizable in each other.” Having never been in love before, his goal was simple. If he became a decorated war hero, he might win the favor of Margaret Roll, daughter of the prosperous doctor. Harry Short fought against the Boers in a skirmish known as Jameson’s Raid, an insurrection with the intention to enter Transvaal and overthrow the government.” He was a young teenager willing to risk his life ‘under the flimsiest of motivations’.” He did, however, score a victory with Dr. Roll and the young couple married and moved to Canada.
Harry refused to request assistance from Margaret’s father. They homesteaded, living in a narrow, poorly ventilated house. They had no transportation beyond an old, borrowed horse. Margaret complained about living in abject poverty. In 1914, Harry lied on his enlistment papers and went off to war to get away from Margaret.. “The trenches had sapped his humour…had taken away his easy step.” Upon his return, Harry did not discuss the war. Housewives did. “The laundry line was as good as a telephone wire.”
Ruth Short’s childhood in Winnipeg’s French Quarter in 1914, was filled with “modernity, buzzing, clanking” of horse and buggy, automobiles and electric streetcars. Harry preferred silence. Was returning home from war freedom or a prison? He did not demonstrate any affection. Margaret looked after Ruth “because it is her duty…assumed that all love is fiction…(and) viewed abandonment as the only constant in love.”
After meeting Frank Good, musician, Ruth and her two sisters go to a club to listen to his jazz band. “Half the time (Frank) was happy. Half the time crippled with doubt…He knew where he’d find peace. In love. “Frank thought Ruth to be loving but independent…’a person with many rooms…the architecture of their existence. All of her rooms were filled…’.” Why did he abandon her? “The handcuffs he found himself in were of his own design.”
It would seem that duty rather than love was threaded though generations of this family. Granddaughter Margaret Good stated that “my mother and grandmother believed in duty…I can find her offering no love…It’s her duty to raise me, my duty to be raised.”
World events required duty as well. In 1939, Europe was armed for war. “The war arrives in the absences…throughout Winnipeg, children and grandparents replace adults. The mailman becomes a mailboy…The milkman, now a grandfather, makes morning deliveries door-to-door. As early as 1939, people go missing…rations have a ‘distinct wartime absence of flavour.” In 1950, when the Red River overflowed, sandbag dikes were breached, floods destroyed bridges. When the waters receded, those who survived made their attempt to start over.
“Those Are Pearls” by Andre Narbonne is a snapshot in the lives of several generations of the Short family from Cape Town, South Africa in 1896 to Winnipeg, Canada in 1950. The backdrop of history as well as family dynamics delivers a thought-provoking read of literary fiction..
Thank you Andre Narbonne and Aimee Dunn@ Palimpsest Press for the Print ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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