All My Puny Sorrows: : Miriam Toews: Bloomsbury Publishing

All My Puny Sorrows

Description

From the bestselling author of Women Talking, a "wrenchingly honest, darkly funny novel" (Entertainment Weekly).

Elf and Yoli are sisters. While on the surface Elfrieda's life is enviable (she's a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, and happily married) and Yolandi's a mess (she's divorced and broke, with two teenagers growing up too quickly), they are fiercely close-raised in a Mennonite household and sharing the hardship of Elf's desire to end her life. After Elf's latest attempt, Yoli must quickly determine how to keep her family from falling apart while facing a profound question: what do you do for a loved one who truly wants to die?

All My Puny Sorrows is a deeply personal story that is as much comedy as it is tragedy, a goodbye grin from the friend who taught you how to live.

Product details

Published	Oct 15 2019
Format	Paperback
Edition	1st
Extent	336
ISBN	9781635574975
Imprint	Bloomsbury Publishing
Dimensions	8 x 6 inches
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Irresistible… its intelligence, its honesty and, above all, its compassion provide a kind of existential balm-a comfort not unlike the sort you might find by opening a bottle of wine and having a long conversation with (yes, really) a true friend.

Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times Book Review
In the crucible of [Miriam Toews'] genius, tears and laughter are ground into some magical elixir that seems like the essence of life.

Ron Charles, The Washington Post
[A] wrenchingly honest, darkly funny novel. (Grade: A)

Entertainment Weekly
Bold, brash and big-hearted.... Toews writes from the point of view of Yoli, whose interior monologue reads like a cross between David Foster Wallace and Robin Williams if both were, in fact, a 40-something Mennonite woman with authority issues. She's a smart aleck with heart, a philosopher with a comic's timing.

The Dallas Morning News
Toews (Irma Voth) does a wonderful job with her characters, none of whom are perfect, which makes them all the more real. It requires a talented author to take a serious subject and write such an engaging, enjoyable work.

Library Journal (starred)
Touching and unexpectedly humorous.

Marie Claire