A Complicated Kindness is a novel by Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 author Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer of Mennonite descent. She grew up in Steinbach, Manitoba and has lived in Montreal and London, before settling in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She moved to Toronto in 2009....

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Originally published in 2004 by Knopf Canada, it was the winner of the Governor General's Award

2004 Governor General's Awards

The nominees for the 2004 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were announced on October 26. The children's literature winners were announced on November 15, and the other winners were announced on November 16...

 for English Fiction, and was nominated for the Giller Prize

Scotiabank Giller Prize

The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries...

. It spent over a year on the Canadian bestseller lists. East Village, the town in the novel, is generally considered to be a fictionalized version of Toews' hometown of Steinbach

Steinbach, Manitoba

Steinbach is a city of approx. 13,500 people in the southeast corner of the province of Manitoba, Canada, a short distance from the capital Winnipeg. Steinbach is the largest community in the Eastman region of Manitoba. The city is located in the R.M. of Hanover and bordered to the east by the R.M...

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

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The novel is told as a memoir of the fictitious character Nomi Nickel, a teenage girl embarrassed by her heritage who longs to escape to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to hang out with Lou Reed

Lou Reed

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...

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