But mostly she’s terrified that it will break inside her.

She tells me that it’s squeezed right up against the lower right side of her stomach, that sometimes she can feel the hard edges of it pushing at her skin, that she’s afraid it will push through and she’ll bleed to death. Then Elf tells me that she has a glass piano inside her.

And you should most definitely read it.Įlf’s description of her depression to her sister (and first person narrator) Yolanada (AKA Yoli): This is because Miriam Toews understands that the line between soul shredding grief and laugh out loud comedy is incredibly thin.Īll My Puny Sorrows is an astonishing novel. While it’s absolutely about mental illness, about the right to live and the right to die, it’s also one of the most life affirming novel’s I’ve read. It’s very hard to describe All My Puny Sorrows without making it sounds like the sort of book that will darken a sunny day and put a frown on a clown. When Elf tries again to take her own life, Yoli is the first one there to support her.Īnd then one day Elf asks Yoli if she’d like to accompany her to Switzerland. A country famous for its armed neutrality, its watches, its chocolate and its legalisation of assisted suicide. Yoli is Elf’s younger sister, recently divorced, who is living off her savings and is struggling to finish her first literary novel. She has a wonderful marriage with a husband who loves her deeply. Elf is a brilliant pianist who performs internationally in front of sellout crowds.

All my puny sorrows book summary