Doubting Yourself to the Bone is a story about the nature of grief, about what it means to be a parent in the face of great sorrow, the idea of re-invented love and hope. Set in Paris and a small town in the Canadian Rockies, the novel is propelled forward by a horrific car crash that reverberates for the victim’s husband and daughters. From a scotch-swilling Tibetan monk to a titillating, imagined waif named Katya, whose uninvited visits are always intriguing, this story serpentines through the labyrinth of grief and pain as the victim’s husband wrestles with the question, was the car crash an accident or intentional? It is a bumpy and strange journey, peopled with a capricious mother, an aging alcoholic uncle, five Buddhist monks in a broken van, and a nudist lesbian, that leads its main character and the reader on the road to salvation.

Thomas Trofimuk’s first novel, The 52nd Poem, won the George Bugnet Novel of the Year Award and the City of Edmonton Book Prize at the 2003 Alberta Book Awards. His second novel, Doubting Yourself to the Bone, was named as one of the Globe and Mail's top 100 must-read books for 2006. Waiting for Columbus was published in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Serbia, Poland, Brazil, China, and Quebec (in translation). Waiting for Columbus won the City of Edmonton Book Prize, was a nominee for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick for fall 2010, and was one of Richard and Judy’s 100 Books. A fourth novel, This is All a Lie, was released in fall 2017. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Thomas Trofimuk's profile page

“There are parts when Thomas writes, you read over and over again. It’s that delightful kind of writing — where you go, my gosh, it’s so beautiful!”

CBC Radio

“It has been a long time since a book had me as thoroughly engaged as Thomas Trofimuk’s Doubting Yourself to the Bone. The Edmonton author’s writing is poetically wonderful from beginning to end as he drapes his words over a story that deals with death but is really about life and can’t help but leave you thinking … this novel flows together seamlessly.”

Edmonton Journal

“The everyday detail that Trofimuk infuses into his fiction makes for a realistic portrayal of family life, friendship and regeneration. Even when characters veer toward the unusual, or even unlikely, Trofimuk achieves verisimilitude, and his flair with prose is luxurious.”

The Globe and Mail