The Flying Troutmans

By Miriam Toews
(Counterpoint, Paperback, 9781582435312, 256pp.)

Publication Date: September 2009

Other Editions of This Title: Paperback, Paperback, Hardcover

Categories: Literary

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the October 2008 Indie Next List

Travel can be stressful, with flight delays, waiting rooms, and hours in economy class. One of the best ways to survive this mayhem is with a good book. Author Susan Jane Gilman offers suggestions for six great books that won't embarrass you in airports. More at NPR.org

“This saga of bad luck and good company is a wry, scary, heartfelt ode to the traverses we have to make in life when we’re at the end of our rope and there’s no net below us.” —Elle

"A lovably nutty cast." —Publishers Weekly

“Not since Stephen Leacock have our neighbors to the north given us a writer as witty and wise as Miriam Toews . . . She is out to entertain with words, and the tale of the flying Troutmans is her best entertainment yet.” —Los Angeles Times

“Toews excels here at comedic sophistication, all while masterfully embedding explorations of madness, truth, and the immense sorrow that comes from caring for someone who is derailed by mania’s devious tug.” —Booklist

“Miriam Toews saunters along the line between comedy and grief as if she might lose her balance at any moment. But she never does. The precarious tone of her novels about fractured families is the crafted effect of a nimble writer . . . Toews is a genius at recording the everyday weirdness of young people, their capricious vacillation between screw-you sarcasm and tender pleading for affirmation.” —Washington Post

"Engaging, humorous, grim, and redemptive, this is essential reading." —Library Journal