Summer of My Amazing Luck

De: Miriam Toews

Narrado por: Amy Rutherford

Summer of My Amazing Luck is Miriam's first novel and a favourite for many die-hard Toews fans.

Welcome to Winnipeg's Have-a-Life housing project . . . better known as Half-a-Life. Meet eighteen year-old Lucy and flamboyant Lish, two of the single moms who live there. Lucy has no idea who the father of her son is. Lish has four girls, and though she says she doesn't want a man around, she still pines for the father of her twins, a fire-eating busker who was just passing through town. Every Friday is "Deadbeat Dads" visiting day, but otherwise fathers aren't around much at Half-a-Life.

Life at Half-a-Life has its ups and downs. The welfare regulations are endless and the ratfink neighbours won't mind their own business. Wagons and cheap strollers are the only way to get to and from the grocery stores, and it's hard enough to make ends meet without the welfare minister trying to take away the child tax credit. So when Lish decides they should go to Colorado to find the fire-eater, Lucy can't help but be excited. They borrow a van held together with coat hangers and electrical tape, load it up with kids and hit the road. Lucy knows they'll never find the fire-eater, but she doesn't know this will be the summer of her amazing luck.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Finalist for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and CBC Manitoba Reads

"[A] tart, affectionate look at welfare mothers in a Winnipeg housing project."
—The New York Times Book Review

“Graceful phrasing, apt metaphors, deft plotting—are so fully and covertly at the service of the
imagination that you feel almost as if the story, the characters, have appeared unbidden from
your own psyche.”
—The Globe and Mail

“You stand in wonder and gratitude that such artistry exists.”
—The Globe and Mail

“In a style rather like Barbara Kingsolver, Toews has her characters find a way to make joy in their lives.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

“The book shows the unique ways these women hold their heads up high, pushing limits and themselves all for the love of their children. . . . The characters in this book are likable and interesting.”
—MetroValley Newspaper Group


Praise for the writing of Miriam Toews:

“Wise, edgy, unforgettable.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Brilliant . . . there is beauty and compassion in [Toews’s] portrayal of Nomi’s struggle.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Unforgettable.”
—People

“Exquisitely written and faceted. . . . Heartbreaking and humorous. . . . From beginning to end the book is unusually calibrated and incredibly compelling.”
—The Guardian (UK)

“Told with the slouchy, cool grace of a misfit teen, this sparkly novel is destined to become a coming-of-age classic.”
—Elle (UK)

“At first Toews’s characters seem merely quirky; then they get under your skin, and finally, it seems, into your very blood, where they quicken the heart.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Delightfully humourous, subversive and naughtily clever.”
—Prairie Fire