They send Lottie on a cruise so she can rest and they can focus on Elf. Her sister Yolandi, nicknamed Yoli, has flown to Winnipeg from Toronto to help the family, which includes Elf’s husband Nic. Her mother, Lottie, found her and got her to the hospital in time, but this is not Elf’s first suicide attempt. All My Puny Sorrows begins as Elfrieda, nicknamed Elf, is hospitalized after a failed suicide attempt with an overdose of painkillers. It won the 2014 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the 2015 Folio Prize for Literature, and the 2015 Wellcome Book Prize. It received highly positive reviews across the board, and was nominated for multiple awards. Exploring themes of mental illness, family legacy, and the unique bond between sisters, All My Puny Sorrows is one of Toews’ most acclaimed books. However, Elfrieda deals with deep depression and suicidal urges, and Yolandi may be the only one who can save her sister. Yolandi, the novel’s narrator, is a single mother and struggling writer with a troubled life, while Elfrieda is a wildly successful concert pianist with a happy home life. Heavily inspired by events from Toews’ life, it focuses on Elfrieda and Yolandi Von Riesen, the only children of an eccentric family from a conservative Mennonite community. All My Puny Sorrows is a novel by Canadian author Miriam Toews, first published in 2014.

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