RaveThe Irish ExaminerIt may seem like a heavyweight read — and, to be fair, it often is — yet Toews leavens the persistent gloom which is characteristic of lesser literary writing with a vein of dark comedy ... It is an unexpected tone for a novel not just about depression and the moral quagmire of assisted dying, but for one based on the author’s own experience of her sister’s suicide in 2010 ... The novel is as much a work of truth as it is of imagination ... All My Puny Sorrows is thus a tonal masterclass of a novel, a sad, sad book which is compulsive reading because of how it acknowledges humour as a pivot-point in the seesaw of dignity. It is vulnerable to accusations of plotlessness, yes, but to criticise Toews for that is to miss the point entirely. Because this is not a story built around twists and turns. It is instead an engrossing and hugely satisfying dramatisation of an unimaginable request.
