Words leave imprints in your mind like footprints in the sand...
beach reading
starry skies to read under
reading in nature
  • Location: Manitoba

A Complicated Kindness

A Complicated Kindness

Why a Booktrail?

East Village Manitoba is not like the one in New York City…

  • ISBN: 978-0571326075
  • Genre: Childrens

What you need to know before your trail

Left alone with her father Ray, her days are spent piecing together the reasons her mother Trudie and her sister Tash have gone missing, and trying to figure out what she can do to avoid a career at Happy Family Farms, a chicken abattoir on the outskirts of East Village – not the neighbourhood in Manhattan where Nomi most wants to live but the small town in southern Manitoba. East Village is ministered by Hans, Nomi’s pious uncle, otherwise known as The Mouth.

As Nomi gets to the bottom of the truth behind her mother’s and sister’s disappearances, she finds herself on a direct collision course with her uncle and the only community she has ever known. In this funny, compassionate and moving novel, Miriam Toews has created a character who will stay in the hearts of readers long after they’ve put the book down.

Travel Guide

Steinbach, Manitoba.

The novel is set in a small religious Mennonite town called East Village, which is fictional but is thought to be heavily inspired by  Toews’ hometown of Steinbach, Manitoba.

The narrator is Nomi Nickel, a curious, defiant, sardonic 16-year-old who dreams of hanging out with Lou Reed in the ‘real’ East Village of New York City.

There is  a strong Mennonite presence in the town and a replica Mennonite village where you can visit and almost see the book take shape within

Booktrail Boarding Pass:  A Complicated Kindness

Destination : Manitoba  Author/Guide: Miriam Toews

Back to Results

Featured Book

The Convenience Store by the Sea

2000s: Welcome to Tenderness, Japan!

Read more