Summer of My Amazing Luck

''Toews's debut is a tart, affectionate look at welfare mothers. Toews is especially good on the "rollicking, happy, impoverished family" of the projects [and] scathing about the humiliations of poverty. '' New York Times. Lucy and her eight-month-old son live in a Winnipeg housing project filled with single mothers on the dole. Still dealing with her own mother's sudden death, and new to the ever-multiplying complications of life on welfare, Lucy strikes up a friendship with her neighbour, Lish. On the whole, they're pretty happy. But Lucy wants to make sure they stay happy. And she has a plan. Told with Toews's signature scalding wit and deep compassion, Summer of my Amazing Luck. is a brilliantly funny book about the intricacies of friendship, grief, and poverty. ''[A] picaresque account of two welfare moms having loopy adventures and getting by in the city. The novel's voice [is] amused, warm, curious, alive on the page. '' The New Yorker.