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A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews is a novel of fierce originality and brilliance from the celebrated Canadian novelist, author of The Flying Troutmans and All My Puny Sorrows.

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We´re Mennonites. As far as I know, we are the most embarrassing sub-sect of people to belong to if you´re a teenager.

Sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel longs to hang out with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull in New York City´s East Village. Instead she´s trapped in East Village, Manitoba: a town with no train station, no bar, and where job prospects consist of slaughtering chickens at the Happy Family Farms abattoir.
Since her mother and sister have left home, Nomi lives with her father, Ray, a sweet yet hapless schoolteacher. Fighting against the restraints of the town, Nomi´s longing for a future of opportunity and hope sets her on course towards a climax at once startling and inevitable.

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The most engaging narrative voice I´ve come across lately (right up there with Holden Caulfield and Huck Finn) is that of Nomi, the teenage girl at the centre of Miriam Toews´s A Complicated Kindness (Faber) - a darkly hilarious novel set in an oppressive Mennonite community. Blake Morrison Holiday Reads, The Guardian

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Miriam Toews (pronounced tâves) was born in 1964 in the small Mennonite
town of Steinbach, Manitoba. She has published four novels and
a memoir of her father, and is the recipient of numerous literary awards
including the Governor General´s Award, the McNally Robinson Book
of the Year Award (twice), and the Rogers Writers´ Trust Fiction Prize.
In 2007 she made her screen debut in the film Luz silenciosa. She was
nominated for Best Actress at Mexico´s Ariel Awards for her performance., Miriam Toews (pronounced tâves) was born in 1964 in the small Mennonite
town of Steinbach, Manitoba. She has published five novels and
a memoir of her father, and is the recipient of numerous literary awards
including the Governor General´s Award, the McNally Robinson Book
of the Year Award (twice), and the Rogers Writers´ Trust Fiction Prize.

Miriam Toews (pronounced tâves) was born in 1964 in the small Mennonite
town of Steinbach, Manitoba. She has published four novels and
a memoir of her father, and is the recipient of numerous literary awards
including the Governor General´s Award, the McNally Robinson Book
of the Year Award (twice), and the Rogers Writers´ Trust Fiction Prize.
In 2007 she made her screen debut in the film Luz silenciosa. She was
nominated for Best Actress at Mexico´s Ariel Awards for her performance.

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