All My Puny Sorrows

All My Puny Sorrows by Toews, Miriam. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781940450278.

Elf and Yoli are sisters. While on the surface Elfriedas life is enviable (shes a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, and happily married) and Yolandis a mess (shes divorced and broke, with two teenagers growing up too quickly), they are fiercely close — raised in a Mennonite household and sharing the hardship of Elfs desire to end her life. After Elfs latest attempt, Yoli must quickly determine how to keep her family from falling apart, how to keep her own heart from breaking, and what it means to love someone who wants to die. All My Puny Sorrows is the latest novel from Miriam Toews, one of Canadas most beloved authors — not only because her work is rich with deep human feeling and compassion but because her observations are knife-sharp and her books wickedly funny. And this is Toews at her finest: a story that is as much a comedy as it is a tragedy, a goodbye grin from the friend who taught you how to live.