A razor-sharp dramedy following a twenty-something female comic as she navigates family grief, a dysfunctional friendship, and a date gone very wrong, from Georgia Toews, author of Hey, Good Luck Out There.

Virginia is twenty-three and a stand-up comedian. In between working the rounds of Toronto’s small comedy club circuit and auditioning for paper towel commercials, she is tiptoeing around her depressed roommate and childhood friend, Haley, and having biweekly dinners with her bereaved stepdad, Dale, while trying to manage her own grief at the loss of her mother. She is also secretly working to get the green card that will be her ticket to L.A. and, she hopes, a glittering comedy career.

But when Dale tells her that he wants to sell their family home, and when a date with a fellow comic turns into a shattering encounter, she is forced to confront the limits of comedy—and friendship. Not every experience can be neatly packaged into a “bit,” and not every friendship is meant to last.

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Nobody Asked for This reaches into the messy depths of love, friendship, grief and trauma and, like all the best jokes, is utterly unpredictable.

Georgia Toews' profile page

GEORGIA TOEWS is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel, Hey, Good Luck Out There. She is also a writer for film and television. Born and raised in Winnipeg, she now lives in Toronto.

"Unflinching, tender, radiant. There is a pyrotechnic quality to this novel—a storm in its pages. I read Nobody Asked for This in a single sitting, bracing, yet anchored always by the full-heartedness it offered—arriving at a sky so clear it appeared new. Toews writes wisely, hilariously, magnetically about how, in grief, we further demolish ourselves before we rebuild, and how this is a cosmic task, a conversation with both the dead and with our futures, a task that ultimately locates love." —Claudia Dey, author of Daughter
"I stayed up way past my bedtime because I could not stop reading! Nobody Asked for This is vibrant, electric and full of life. A clear-eyed look at friendship and the Canadian comedy scene, it asks a vital question—with all that life throws at us, how do we find joy? With writing that is as heart-wrenching as it is funny, Georgia Toews shows the way." —Claire Cameron, author of The Last Neanderthal and How to Survive a Bear Attack
"The funniest book I’ve read about the horrors and pitfalls of the comedy world. The most horrifying book I’ve read about the comedy and pitfalls of friendship. If you like laughing out loud and being fucking furious, you will love this book." —Georgia Pritchett, author of My Mess Is a Bit of a Life
"Nobody Asked for This is visceral, sharp, commanding, heartbreaking, funny and incredible. Georgia Toews’ talent for storytelling is profound—she's a gift to Canadian fiction." —Anne T. Donahue, writer, comedian and author of Nobody Cares

"I loved this book. Georgia Toews has a relentless eye for detail, a coal-black sense of humour and an uncanny ability to uncover hard truths. Nobody Asked for This is about the exhausting rituals we all maintain to avoid talking about our feelings, and about how much easier it is to make jokes about our trauma than to deal with it. Toews understands that if the world is a stage, we’re all comedians—and we’re dying up here." —Calum Marsh, writer, reporter and editor