Complex goodwill

Author: Miriam Toews
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: Selected for the "Best Foreign Novel of the 21st Century" award in 2004. It is a novel about faith, belonging, and escape. Sixteen-year-old Nome grows up in a fundamentalist Mennonite community on the plains of Manitoba, Canada. Her sister leaves home to escape the religious culture that clashes with modern civilization, and her mother is exiled from the community for adultery. Struggling with the confusion of adolescence, Nome lives with her quiet and gentle father, passing the days with forced smiles and mutual comfort, yet never ceasing to long for the joy of their former family of four, and relentlessly searching for the mysteries of her sister's and mother's disappearances.