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  • All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews book cover
  • All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews book cover
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All My Puny Sorrows

by Miriam Toews

Sisterhood under strain

Critically Recognized
$18.12 USD
$30.21 USD $18.12 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Entertainment Weekly praise

    Entertainment Weekly describes the novel as “wrenchingly honest” and “darkly funny.”

AlbakiReads Editorial

Sisterhood under strain

Elf and Yoli’s bond is tested by a crisis that cannot be solved through admiration or practical help alone: Elf, a celebrated pianist with an apparently enviable life, wants to die, while Yoli must reckon with what support can mean when a loved one’s wishes are clear. Their shared upbringing in a Mennonite household and Yoli’s own unsettled family circumstances give the sisters’ struggle a wider family context. The novel brings comedy into a story shaped by despair, asking difficult questions about love, responsibility, and the limits of what one person can do for another.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in complex bonds between sisters and the pressures families face during a crisis.
  • For readers seeking fiction that addresses suicidal desire and caregiving alongside family life.
  • For readers interested in stories that combine comedy and tragedy.

Themes

Sisterhood and family bondsSuicidal desire and caregivingResponsibility and the limits of supportMennonite upbringingComedy and tragedy

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

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.

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Customer reviews

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AlbakiReads
Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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Thomas DiMassa

Great service and fast service

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Ella

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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Olivia

Smooth.