Praise for A Boy of Good Breeding Winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award "It''s hard to read these charming tall tales and not root for the young Miriam Toews." -- The New York Times " A Boy of Good Breeding caught me at the throat, made me laugh and weep with sad-sweet joy . [The characters] get under your skin, and finally, it seems, into your very blood, where they quicken the heart . Tonic for the spirit: a charming, deeply moving, unerringly human story, perfectly shaped and beautifully told." -- The Globe and Mail "Reading [Toews] is like climbing into a fizzy bath of lunatic humour . Buried in the mysteries of parenthood, love and death are at least a couple of home truths." -- Toronto Star "An earnest, sweet-tempered narrative." -- Kirkus Reviews "[A] sweet, funny novel full of memorable, picaresque characters and unexpected drama.
" -- Publishers Weekly Praise for Miriam Toews "Toews is an artist of escape; she always finds a way for her characters, trapped by circumstance, to liberate themselves." --Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker "Toews has spent most of her career refining her portrayals of how disorder--both internal and societal--can so easily overtake the family. Now readers can observe this process of refinement through her first four novels, which Counterpoint Press reissued earlier this year. As Toews has matured as a writer, she''s excelled at demonstrating how easily control can slip from our grasp, ceding ground to disorder--especially in the context of the family. She excels at engineering a constant sense of teetering on the edge of disarray, of occupying a position where it is possible to fall into for any number of things to go wrong in any number of different ways . Across Counterpoint''s reissued quartet, Toews hones her skills, growing ever more exacting and forceful." --Bradley Babendir, The Believer Praise for All My Puny Sorrows A New York Times 2015 Holiday Gift Guide selection A New York Times Editors'' Choice selection A Slate Book Review Favorite Books of the Year selection A Boston Globe ''Best Fiction of 2014'' Pick One of Ms. Magazine ''s Great Reads for Fall 2014 "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 "Touching and unexpectedly humorous." -- Marie Claire "[T]he heartbreaking, valiant, very funny ." -- Chicago Tribune "A harrowing and often very funny novel . Every page yields a surprise, a laugh, or a line that will make your breath catch in your throat." --Dan Kois, Slate "As jagged and ripped open as a freshly torn heart.
" -- The Boston Globe " All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews: The premise of Toews''s sixth novel, released to critical acclaim in Canada earlier this year, is simple and devastating: there are two adult sisters, and one of them wants to die. She''s a wildly successful and in-demand concert pianist, but she longs for self-annihilation. It''s a premise that could easily be grindingly unbearable, but Toews is a writer of considerable subtlety and grace, with a gift for bringing flashes of lightness, even humor, to the darkest of tales." -- The Millions "A touching tribute and a captivating novel." -- BUST "Heartbreaking." -- Bustle "Funny and irresistibly warm ." -- BuzzFeed "[A] sad, wise, often funny and very good novel." -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel " All My Puny Sorrows is a bittersweet story about those who survive and those who can''t fight the current.
" -- Minneapolis Star Tribune "Toews is an extraordinarily gifted writer, with unsentimental compassion for her people and an honest understanding of their past, the tectonic shifts of their present and variables of their future." -- The Globe and Mail "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 "Sisters should always want what is best for each other, but what if what one sister really wants is to end her life? This is the dilemma Yoli faces when her ethereal sister, Elf, attempts suicide . Despite the topic, this is not a dark novel. In fact, its gloom comes in the form of dark humor, and Toews 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 Review) "[A] triumph in its depiction of the love the sisters share." -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "[A] masterful, original investigation into love, loss and survival." -- Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) "Toews writes with a sharp and piercing eye, offering characters and descriptions which are so odd and yet so spot-on that the reader has to laugh, albeit reluctantly." -- Booklist "[Miriam Toews] has a wry, funny voice that is the readers'' steady companion. She also has an eye for the absurd and a perfect tragicomedic timing in delivery." -- Christian Century Praise for Irma Voth " . endearingly odd and affecting . [Toews] writes with an instinctive grasp of the adolescent point of view.
" --Maria Russo, New York Times Book Review "The wryly funny title character keeps the story poignant." -- USA Today "A strong and skillful novel . a parable of redemption, a powerful theme . that leaves the reader with a comforting glow of hope." --Annie Proulx, Financial Times "Funny and skilfully drawn, this novel shows the real appeal of tales set in unknown communities: that underneath the unfamiliar surfaces are the exact same people--a teenage girl trying to find out who she is and how to live, driven by familiar dreams and desires, and the same need for security, love and some sense of fulfilment." -- The Guardian "A witty and thoughtful coming-of-age story . A novel about parenthood and sisterhood, and about redefining those relationships as people grow . it succeeds tremendously.
" -- The Washington Independent Review of Books "Toews . combines an intimate coming-of-age tale with picaresque and extremely effective prose." -- Publishers Weekly "Simultaneously poignant and humorous . perfectly captures this young woman''s attempt to find her niche in a world so different from that in which she was raised . Toews''s unique voice shines." -- Booklist "A literary novel marked by charm, wit and an original approach to language." -- Kirkus Reviews Praise for The Flying Troutmans The Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize "Not since Stephen Leacock have our neighbors to the north given us a writer as witty and wise as Miriam Toews . She is out to entertain with words, and the tale of the flying Troutmans is her best entertainment yet.
" -- Los Angeles Times "This saga of bad luck and good company is a wry, scary, heartfelt ode to the traverses we have to make in life when we''re at the end of our rope and there''s no net below us." -- Elle "Miriam Toews saunters along the line between comedy and grief as if she might lose her balance at any moment. But she never does. The precarious tone of her novels about fractured families is the crafted effect of a nimble writer . Toews is a genius at recording the everyday weirdness of young people, their capricious vacillation between screw-you sarcasm and tender pleading for affirmation." --Ron Charles, Washington Post "[Toews] shows with refreshing vividness how feelings of anger, betrayal and rage can simmer into something stranger and richer, somehow sadder and yet more joyful. This is a measured look at what it means to be pushed away by a loved one . but it''s also a colourful portrait of a family trying to survive in its own unique way.
" --Carrie O''Grady, The Guardian "Toews may have invented a new genre, the romantic-depressive comedy, at which she excels." -- Toronto Star "Toews writes . in a high-energy original voice filled with love, fear, humour and originality. Miriam Toews is an extraordinarily gifted writer, one who writes with unsentimental compassion for her people and an honest understanding of their past, the tectonic shifts of their present and variables of their future." -- The Globe and Mail "Ms. Toews delivers the story . with a fresh voice and liberal doses of humor . undernea.