In her latest YA novel, Caroline Stellings explores questions of tolerance and self-acceptance. Set in 1979, The Manager centres on Ellie and her boxing-obsessed sister, Tina, who suffers from achondroplasia, a genetic disorder marked by abnormal skeletal growth resulting in disproportionately short limbs. While the preferred term for individuals affected by the condition is “little people,” narrator Ellie tells us that Tina hates the label.

Ellie and Tina live above their single-father’s boxing gym in the Whitney Pier area of Sydney, Nova Scotia, a community that was once a centre for the sport but has fallen on hard times. Facing the threat of the gym closing, their father puts all his effort into furthering the career of one prizefighter, Ryan Byrne.

When Tina is offered the chance to undergo a free but risky operation in Boston that would elongate her legs, she and Ellie hitch a ride with a family friend. But in Halifax they meet a handsome Mi’kmaw light-heavyweight named Jesse. Tina quickly devises a scheme to save her father’s business, and offers to become Jesse’s manager.

Given that her biggest desires are to leave the world of boxing behind, move away from Whitney Pier, and get a job as a teacher, Ellie’s willing participation in Tina’s plan seems a little odd (and convenient). But perhaps this discrepancy speaks to the idea that, as much as we may try, we cannot ever truly escape where we come from and who we are.