A Complicated Kindness Av Miriam Toews

<p><i><b>We''re Mennonites. As far as I know, we are the most embarrassing sub-sect of people to belong to if you''re a teenager.<br><br></b></i>Sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel longs to hang out with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull in New York City''s East Village. Instead she''s trapped in East Village, Manitoba: a town with no train station, no bar, and where job prospects consist of slaughtering chickens at the Happy Family Farms abattoir.<br>Since her mother and sister have left home, Nomi lives with her father, Ray, a sweet yet hapless schoolteacher. Fighting against the restraints of the town, Nomi''s longing for a future of opportunity and hope sets her on course towards a climax at once startling and inevitable.</p>