All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

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.

Miriam Toews is the author of A Complicated Kindness, which won the Governor General's Award and was a finalist for the Giller Prize, A Boy of Good Breeding, and Swing Low: A Life, which won the Governor General's Award and was a finalist for the Giller Prize. She's written for NPR's This American Life and the New York Times Magazine, among other publications. She is a resident of Winnipeg, Manitoba.