A Complicated Kindness is a novel by Canadian author Miriam Toews. Originally published in 2004 by Knopf Canada, it was the winner of the Governor General's Award for English Fiction, and was nominated for the Giller Prize. 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, Manitoba. 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 to hang out with Lou Reed. At the end of the book it is revealed that she has addressed the memoir to Mr Quiring, one of her school teachers. A Complicated Kindness was chosen for inclusion in Canada Reads 2006, where it was championed by singer-songwriter, poet and publisher John K. Samson. It won the competition. (via Wikipedia)