A Complicated Kindness

From the moment Nomi Nickels begins her story, listeners know something's wrong in her life. Cara Pifko's narration in young Nomi's voice makes that clear from the start, taking on shades of anger, petulance, and rebellion as listeners ponder the reasons behind the departures of her sister, Tash, and her mother, not to mention the strange actions of Nomi herself and her father. At first, her rant seems like typical teen angst, but soon it reveals the hurtfulness of the Mennonite practice of shunning those who go against their dictates. Pifko makes listeners care as Toews slowly unveils Nomi's story. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

July 19, 2004
A 16-year-old rebels against the conventions of her strict Mennonite community and tries to come to terms with the collapse of her family in this insightful, irreverent coming-of-age novel. In bleak rural Manitoba, Nomi longs for her older sister, Tash ("she was so earmarked for damnation it wasn't even funny"), and mother, Trudie, each of whom has recently fled fundamentalist Christianity and their town. Her gentle, uncommunicative father, Ray, isn't much of a sounding board as Nomi plunges into bittersweet memory and grapples with teenage life in a "kind of a cult with pretend connections to some normal earthly conventions." Once a "curious, hopeful child" Nomi now relies on biting humor as her life spins out of control—she stops attending school, shaves her head and wanders around in a marijuana-induced haze—while Ray sells off most of their furniture, escapes on all-night drives and increasingly withdraws into himself. Still, she and Ray are linked in a tender, if fragile, partnership as each slips into despair. Though the narration occasionally unravels into distracting stream of consciousness, the unsentimental prose and the poignant character interactions sustain reader interest. Bold, tender and intelligent, this is a clear-eyed exploration of belief and belonging, and the irresistible urge to escape both. Agent, Knopf Canada.
Author tour.