"I know a girl with a large head who tells only sad stories. She tells me that her stories are not sad because there are other people with worse stories and though this is true, it strikes me as the saddest thing she could say." A motley collection of characters populate these short, short stories, shaped by the daily barrage of media aimed at the general populace. Dramatic, and darkly funny, they revolve around Jewish identity. The schlemiel -- a figure in Jewish folklore who is unlucky and inept at the same time -- is not always apparent in the pages, but is evoked as a guiding concept. People cling to would-be wisdoms, memes, and TV tag-lines, while failing to locate their misplaced communities. A particularly apt book for our current world, where chaos and anxiety reign.

"Sarah Mintz grew up in Greenwood, Goose Bay, Victoria, Courtenay, Vancouver, Montreal, and maybe even Moose Jaw — depending on how one defines “grew up.” She’s worked at video stores, thrift stores, pet stores, managed buildings, shoveled snow, and answered the phone.As a recent graduate of the English M.A program at the University of Regina, her work has thus far appeared in Agnes and True, the University of Regina’s [space] journal, the Book*hug Anthology, Write Across Canada , and a chapbook forthcoming from JackPine Press. Sarah lives in Victoria, BC."

Sarah Mintz's profile page

Handwringers places the reader on a kaleidoscopic carousel exploring contemporary Jewish identity with a momentum fueled by hilarity. Each piece in this sustained work presents a different face, voice, and perspective, collectively steamrolling stereotypes about Jewish people while celebrating a far-ranging and diverse sense of Jewishness today. The arrival of such an acrobatic and soulfully funny writer, one who offers dozens of distinct voices over a concise span of pages, heralds great anticipation for whatever she might come up with next.
--Steve Gronert Ellerhoff, author of Mole.