Most Popular Books by Miriam Toews

The basis of the Oscar-winning film from writer/director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, with Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand. INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “This amazing, sad, shocking, but touching novel, based on a real-life event, could be right out of The Handmaid''s Tale.” -Margaret Atwood, on Twitter "Scorching . . . a wry, freewheeling novel of ideas that touches on the nature of evil, questions of free will, collective responsibility, cultural determinism, and, above all, forgiveness." -New York Times Book Review, Editors'' Choice One evening, eight Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For the past two years, each of these women, and more than a hundred other girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm. While the men of the colony are off in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists and bring them home, these women-all illiterate, without any knowledge of the world outside their community and unable even to speak the language of the country they live in-have very little time to make a choice: Should they stay in the only world they''ve ever known or should they dare to escape? Based on real events and told through the “minutes” of the women''s all-female symposium, Toews''s masterful novel uses wry, politically engaged humor to relate this tale of women claiming their own power to decide.

From the bestselling author of Women Talking, a "wrenchingly honest, darkly funny novel" (Entertainment Weekly). Elf and Yoli are sisters. While on the surface Elfrieda''s life is enviable (she''s a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, and happily married) and Yolandi''s a mess (she''s divorced and broke, with two teenagers growing up too quickly), they are fiercely close-raised in a Mennonite household and sharing the hardship of Elf''s desire to end her life. After Elf''s latest attempt, Yoli must quickly determine how to keep her family from falling apart while facing a profound question: what do you do for a loved one who truly wants to die? All My Puny Sorrows is a deeply personal story that is as much comedy as it is tragedy, a goodbye grin from the friend who taught you how to live.

"One morning Mel Toews put on his coat and hat and walked out of town, prepared to die. A loving husband and father, faithful member of the Mennonite church, and immensely popular school teacher, he was a pillar of his close-knit community. Yet after a lifetime of struggle, he could no longer face the darkness of manic depression. Now his daughter Miriam, an award-winning writer, has given her father a voice for his whole story. In Swing Low, Miriam recounts Mel''s life as she imagines he would have told it, right up to the day he took his final walk. Toews takes us deep inside the experience of depression, but she also gives us winsome and hilarious tales of country life: growing up on a farm, courting a wife, becoming a teacher, and rearing a strong, happy family in the midst of private torment." --

"Move over, Scout Finch! There''s a new contender for feistiest girl in fiction, and her name is Swiv." -USA Today, "Best Books of the Year" "Toews is a master of dialogue." -New York Times Book Review, Editors'' Choice "A revelation." -Richard Russo NPR Best Books of the Year * Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize * Writers'' Trust Fiction Prize Finalist * Indie Next Pick * Amazon Editors'' Pick * Apple Book of the Month From the bestselling author of Women Talking and All My Puny Sorrows, a compassionate, darkly humorous, and deeply wise novel about three generations of women. “You''re a small thing,” Grandma writes, “and you must learn to fight.” Swiv''s Grandma, Elvira, has been fighting all her life. From her upbringing in a strict religious community, she has fought those who wanted to take away her joy, her independence, and her spirit. She has fought to make peace with her loved ones when they have chosen to leave her. And now, even as her health fails, Grandma is fighting for her family: for her daughter, partnerless and in the third term of a pregnancy; and for her granddaughter Swiv, a spirited nine-year-old who has been suspended from school. Cramped together in their Toronto home, on the precipice of extraordinary change, Grandma and Swiv undertake a vital new project, setting out to explain their lives in letters they will never send. Alternating between the exuberant, precocious voice of young Swiv and her irrepressible, tenacious Grandma, Fight Night is a love letter to mothers and grandmothers, and to all the women who are still fighting-painfully, ferociously- for a way to live on their own terms.

"Toews is an artist of escape; she always finds a way for her characters, trapped by circumstance, to liberate themselves." -Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker Jorge said he wasn''t coming back until I learned how to be a better wife . . . The life of nineteen-year-old Irma Voth, recently married and more recently deserted, is turned on its head when a film crew arrives to make a movie about the strict Mennonite community in which she and her family live. Against her family''s wishes, Irma takes a job on set and glimpses the wider world and a path towards something that feels like freedom.

In a small Mennonite town in southern Manitoba, teenager Nomi Nickel tries to find out the truth behind her mother''s and sister''s disappearances, and ultimately finds herself in conflict with her religious uncle and her community.

"This saga of bad luck and good company is a wry, scary, heartfelt ode to the traverses we have to make in life when we''re at the end of our rope and there''s no net below us." —ELLE From the author of Women Talking—now an Academy Award-winning film starring Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Frances McDormand, and Jessie Buckley When Hattie''s moody boyfriend dumps her in Paris, she returns home to find that her sister Min is in the psych ward again. Freaked out by the prospect of becoming a surrogate mother to Min''s kids, Logan and Thebes, Hattie decides to take them in the family van to find their father, last heard to be running an idiosyncratic art gallery in South Dakota. What ensues is a remarkable journey across America, as aunt and kids—through chaos as diverse as their personalities—discover one another to be both far crazier and far more normal than any of them thought.

In this breathtaking memoir of stunning emotional force and electrifying honesty, one of Canada''s most iconic writers tells her own story for the first time. "Why does Miriam Toews write? A Truce That Is Not Peace answers the question in a hundred ways, all of them original, autobiographical, deeply painful, funny, oblique, confounding – just as those of us who believe her to be one of the greatest living North American writers have come to expect. A Truce That Is Not Peace is the best memoir you will read all year." Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity “Why do you write?” the organizer of a literary event in Mexico City asks Miriam Toews. Each attempt at an answer from Toews—all unsatisfactory to the organizer—surfaces new layers of grief, guilt, and futility connected to her sister’s suicide more than fifteen years ago. She has been keeping up, she realizes, an internal correspondence with her beloved sibling, attempting to fill a silence she can barely comprehend. As Toews turns to face that silence, we come to see that the question “why I write” is as impossible to answer as deciding whether to live life as a comedy or a tragedy. A masterwork of non-fiction, A Truce That Is Not Peace explores the uneasy pact every creative person makes with memory. Wildly original yet intimately, powerfully precise; momentous, hilarious, wrenching, and joyful—this is Miriam Toews at her dazzling best, remaking her personal world and inventing a brilliant literary form to hold it.

A single mom returns to her hometown in Manitoba and gets tangled up in the mayor’s scheme to meet the Canadian Prime Minister . . . A big-hearted, hilarious novel of small-town Canada and its larger-than-life characters—including one stubborn, stray dog—from the author of Women Talking Life in Winnipeg didn’t go as planned for Knute McCloud and her daughter. She’s moved back to Algren to help her mom look after her dad after his heart attack, and gets a job working for the longtime mayor and her dad’s best friend, Hosea Funk. Knute finds herself mixed up with Hosea’s attempts to achieve his dream of meeting the Prime Minister, who Hosea believes is his long-lost father after a secret deathbed confession from his mother. In order to be designated Canada’s smallest town and get an official visit from that very same Prime Minister, they have to keep the town’s population to 1,500—no more, no less. Problem is, people keep coming and going, having triplets, or getting married, or dying. Hosea’s longtime girlfriend wants to move in, and then Knute’s ex shows up—it’s causing no end of trouble. A delightfully quirky novel about the eccentricities of small-town life, and finally finding out where you truly belong.

A Novel by the Governor General’s Literary Award—winning author of A Complicated Kindness Lucy Van Alstyne always thought she’d grow up to become a forest ranger. Instead, at the age of eighteen, she’s found herself with quite a different job title: Single Mother on the Dole. As for the father of her nine-month-old son, Dillinger, well…it could be any of number of guys. At the Have-a-Life housing project–aptly nicknamed Half-a-Life by those who call it home–Lucy meets Lish, a zany and exuberant woman whose idea of fashion is a black beret with a big silver spider brooch stuck on it. Lish is the mother of four daughters, two by a man on welfare himself and twins from a one-week stand with a fire-eating busker who stole her heart–and her wallet. Living on the dole isn’t a walk in the park for Lucy and Lish. Dinner almost always consists of noodles. Transportation means pushing a crappy stroller through the rain. Then there are the condescending welfare agents with their dreaded surprise inspections. And just across the street is Serenity Place, another housing project with which Half-a-Life is engaged in a full-on feud. When the women aren’t busy snitching on each other, they’re spreading rumours–or plotting elaborate acts of revenge. In the middle of a mosquito-infested rainy season, Lish and Lucy decide to escape the craziness of Half-A-Life by taking to the road. In a van held together with coat-hangers and electrical tape and crammed to the hilt with kids and toys, they set off to Colorado in search Lish’s lost love and the father of her twins. Whether they’ll find him is questionable, but the down-and-out adventure helps Lucy realize that this just may be the summer of her amazing luck. Miriam Toews’s debut novel, Summer of My Amazing Luck opens our eyes to a social class rarely captured in fiction. At once hilarious and heartbreaking, it is inhabited by an unforgettable and poignant group of characters. Shortlisted for both the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, it also earned Miriam the John Hirsch Award for the Most Promising Manitoba Writer.

Una nit, vuit dones mennonites de diferents edats es troben en un paller per dur a terme una reunió secreta. Durant els darrers dos anys, aquestes dones, i més d''un centenar d''altres noies de la seva colònia, han estat violades repetidament de nit per dimonis que venen a castigar els seus pecats. Ara que les dones han descobert que havien estat drogades i atacades per un grup d''homes de la seva pròpia comunitat, estan decidides a protegir-se a si mateixes i a salvaguardar les seves filles de possibles mals futurs. Mentre els homes de la colònia van a la ciutat per pagar la fiança i alliberar els violadors, aquestes dones, totes analfabetes, sense cap coneixement del món fora de la seva comunitat, tindran molt poc temps per prendre una decisió: haurien de quedar-se a la comunitat, l''únic món que han conegut, o haurien d''atrevir-se a marxar-ne?

Colonie mennonite de Manitoba, Bolivie, 2009. Alors que les hommes sont partis à la ville, huit femmes – grands-mères, mères et jeunes filles – tiennent une réunion secrète dans un grenier à foin. Depuis quatre ans, nombre d’entre elles sont retrouvées, à l’aube, inconscientes, rouées de coups et violées. Pour ces chrétiens baptistes qui vivent coupés du monde, l’explication est évidente, c’est le diable qui est à l’œuvre. Mais les femmes, elles, le savent : elles sont victimes de la folie des hommes. Elles ont quarante-huit heures pour reprendre leur destin en main. Quarante-huit heures pour parler de ce qu’elles ont vécu, et de ce qu’elles veulent désormais vivre. Analphabètes, elles parlent un obscur dialecte, et ignorent tout du monde extérieur. Pourtant, au fil des pages de ce roman qui retranscrit les minutes de leur assemblée, leurs questions, leur rage, leurs aspirations se révèlent être celles de toutes les femmes. Inspiré d’un fait divers réel, Ce qu’elles disent est un roman éblouissant sur la possibilité pour les femmes de s’affranchir ensemble de ce qui les entrave. Miriam Toews est née en 1964 dans une communauté mennonite du Manitoba, au Canada. Elle est l’autrice de plusieurs romans et a été lauréate de nombreux prix littéraires, notamment du Governor General’s Award. Elle vit au Canada. Ce qu’elles disent est son premier roman à paraître chez Buchet/Chastel, et le troisième à paraître en France après Drôle de tendresse (Seuil, 2006) et Pauvres petits chagrins (Christian Bourgois, 2015).

«Ets una coseta petita i has d''aprendre a lluitar.» La Swiv s''ha pres el consell de l''àvia massa literalment i ara està expulsada de l''escola. La mare està embarassada i no ha deixat de treballar, així que l''àvia serà l''encarregada de la formació de la Swiv i ho farà amb una educació molt particular. La Swiv aprèn matemàtiques amb un trencaclosques amish o com es cava una tomba a l''hivern, i amb l''àvia emprenen un nou projecte vital, amb què es proposen explicar les seves vides escrivint cartes que mai enviaran. Els mètodes de l''àvia potser són poc ortodoxos, però s''ha enfrontat al pitjor de la vida amb un esperit rebel i independent, i això és el que espera transmetre a la seva neta. El seu temps s''està acabant. La salut li falla i el nou nadó està a punt d''arribar: podrà inspirar, l''àvia, aquesta flama en la Swiv i assegurar-se que no s''apagui mai? Commovedora, hilarant i profundament viva, Que no s''apagui la flama és una carta d''amor a les mares i les àvies, i a totes les dones que encara lluiten —dolorosament i feroç— per una manera de viure independent, amb les seves pròpies normes.

Une adolescence mennonite Nomi, seize ans, ne rêve que d’une chose : prendre le large. Partir, comme sa mère et sa soeur, loin d’East Village, une austère communauté mennonite. Malgré la promesse faite à son père de ne jamais le quitter, elle ne peut se résigner à une vie étriquée avec pour seul avenir un travail à l’abattoir de poulets du coin.En attendant le grand soir, l’adolescente laisse libre cours à sa répréhensible passion pour la transgression. Aucun interdit n’échappera au feu qui brûle en elle danssa quête de liberté. De sa propre enfance dans une communauté mennonite,Miriam Toews tire un roman plein d’humour noir, un portrait acéré de l’amour familial et une ode à l’énergie ravageuse de la jeunesse. Immense best-seller au Canada, Drôle de tendresse y a été récompensé par le prestigieux prix du Gouverneur général.

Åtte kvinner sitter på et høyloft og diskuterer i all hemmelighet. Ingen av dem kan lese eller skrive, derfor er August Epp blitt bedt om å føre referat. Kvinnene er mennonitter. I kolonien der de lever er det begått fryktelige overgrep mot kvinnene: gamle, unge, barn. Nå har de åtte kvinnene førtiåtte timer på seg. Innen den tid må de ha tatt en avgjørelse: Hvordan skal de leve med den uretten som er begått mot dem. Toews lar oss ta del i samtalen mens de trøster, erter, kjefter, diskuterer og tenker høyt sammen. Gjennom samtalene går det langsomt opp for oss hva de har vært utsatt for, og hvordan livet arter seg for dem som er nederst på rangstigen i et strengt religiøst samfunn. Miriam Toews (f.1964) bor iToronto. Toews har mottatt et tjuetallspriser for sine romaner.

Traditional Chinese edition of Women Talking

L''Elf i la Yoli són dues germanes intel·ligents i ben avingudes. L''Elfrieda és una pianista de renom mundial, encantadora, rica i feliçment casada: vol morir. La Yolandi està divorciada, li costa arribar a fi de mes amb el sou que guanya i se''n va al llit amb els homes equivocats mentre mira de trobar el veritable amor: vol desesperadament mantenir la seva germana gran amb vida. Però l''últim intent de suïcidi de l''Elf és un xoc: és a tres setmanes de l''inici de la seva esperada gira internacional. Podrà recuperar la salut a temps? A mesura que la situació es torna cada vegada més complicada, la Yoli s''enfronta a la decisió més esfereïdora de la seva vida. "La novel·la que ha escrit —tan exquisidament que en voldreu assaborir cada paraula—, és com si se l''hagués arrencada del cor." Sunday Times

Swiv zit thuis, geschorst van school, omdat ze een advies van haar oma – ‘je bent een klein ding, je moet leren vechten’ – te letterlijk heeft opgevolgd. Haar moeder is hoogzwanger en een ‘lastige dame’. Oma Elvira neemt de scholing van haar kleindochter over met boeiend onderwijs in een onconventionele stijl. Oma Elvira vertelt graag grappige verhalen. Ze is streng religieus opgevoed, maar heeft zich altijd verzet tegen degenen die haar haar levensvreugde en haar onafhankelijkheid wilden ontnemen. Ze heeft alle tegenslag in het leven dapper het hoofd geboden. En zelfs nu haar gezondheid achteruitgaat vecht ze voor haar familie: voor haar partnerloze dochter en voor haar pittige negenjarige kleindochter Swiv. Aangemoedigd door de gezinstherapeut schrijft Swiv een brief aan haar afwezige vader. Swiv geeft haar oma en moeder de opdracht een brief te schrijven aan ''Gord'', haar nog ongeboren zusje. ‘Je bent een klein ding,’ schrijft oma waarheidsgetrouw aan Gord, ‘en je moet leren vechten.’ Met de afwisseling tussen de uitbundige stem van de pientere Swiv en haar onstuitbare, koppige oma is Nachtgevechten een ontroerende liefdesbrief aan moeders en grootmoeders, en aan alle vrouwen die nog steeds vechten om hun leven te leiden zoals zij dat willen.

«Ci sono tante di quelle idee perfette in questo paese, ma l''amore, come lo sballo dell''acido in confronto a un trip di erba scadente, dura piú del dolore. Sí, è cosí. L''amore è tutto. È davvero la cosa piú grande». Nomi Nickel ha sedici anni e vorrebbe frequentare Lou Reed e Marianne Faithfull nell''East Village di New York. Invece è intrappolata a East Village, Manitoba, in una comunità di mennoniti, «la sotto-setta di persone piú imbarazzante a cui appartenere se si è adolescenti». Amministrata con pugno di ferro dallo zio di Nomi, Hans, alias la Bocca delle Tenebre, East Village è una città ricca di regole e povera di divertimento: non si balla, non si beve, non si fa sesso ricreativo, non ci si trucca, non si gioca a biliardo e non si sta svegli oltre le nove di sera. Rimasta sola con il padre quando la metà piú bella della famiglia scompare, Nomi si ribella all''ordine ossessivo e claustrofobico della sua comunità e coltiva la speranza di una vita migliore altrove. Ma solo un complicato atto d''amore potrà regalarle la libertà. Un romanzo di feroce originalità che esplora senza paura i legami che uniscono le famiglie e le forze che le distruggono. «Una voce narrativa fresca e originale che ci parla di una comunità di cui non sappiamo nulla. Cos''altro volete dalla narrativa contemporanea?» Nick Hornby

(كانت تريد الموت، بينما أردتها أن تعيش، وكنا عدونين تحب إحدانا الأخرى..) ما الذي يتعين عليك فعله، عندما تترجاك شقيقتك المقربة لمساعدتها على الرحيل من هذا العالم، لأنها تجد الحياة مؤلمة لدرجة لا تطاق؟ هذه هي الخلفية التي تدور حولها أحداث رواية ميريام تيفز الجريئة وللؤثرة، لكنها أيضا تتسم بالسخرية والحس الفكاهي وهي تتحدث عن عن الحب، والفقد، والبقاء بولي وألف شقيقتان موهوبتان، مقريتان من بعضهما، ورغم الاختلافات الكبيرة بينهما، فإن هناك كثيرا من الأشياء المشتركة بينهما، كل أحزاني الضئيلة، رواية تجمع بين الخيال، وعناصر من السيرة الذاتية للكاتبة، تروي يولي أحداث الحكاية عن شقيقتها، وأسرتهما، ونشأتهما في بلدة كندية صغيرة بين أفراد الطائفة المينونانية المتشددة ألف هي الشقيقة الكبرى، وهي عازفة بيانو محترفة تتمتع بالشهرة، والنجاح، والثروة، والجمال، وتحيا مع زوج محب مخلص لها، لكنها تعاني من اكتئاب مزمن وبعد محاولة انتحار فاشلة أخرى، تدخل قسم الأمراض النفسية بالمستشفى بولي، الشقيقة الصغري، كاتبة لها عدة كتب للناشئة، حققت نجاحا متوسطا وتحاول تأليف كتاب أدبي عكفت عليه لعدة سنوات، نحيا بولي حياة فوضوية ولديها اثنان من الأبناء في سن المراهقة من زيجتين فاشلتين، ولا تفتأ تدخل علاقة تلو الأخرى مع رجال غير ملائمين لها، تجد يولي نفسها في النهاية مسؤولة عن حياة شقيقتها، التي تتوسل إليها لمساعدتها على إنهائها. ميريام نيفز كاتبة كندية، من أصول تنتمي إلى الطائفة المينونانية، نشأت في شتاينباخ بمانيتوبا، وعاشت في مونتريال ولندن، قبل أن تستقر في وينسيج يمانيتوبا، ألفت تيفز عدة أعمال، كما عملت أيضا صحفية مستقلة، وفي الإذاعة. كل أحزاني الفتيلة، هي أحدث رواياتها، صدرت عام 2011، وقد ترشحت وفازت بعدد من الجوائز، كما جرى تحويلها إلى فيلم صدر عام 2021 وفاز بعدة جوائز.

Elf et Yoli. Deux soeurs, deux amies. Elfrieda, pianiste de renommée mondiale mariée à un époux formidable, veut mettre fin à ses jours. Yolandi, divorcée, sans le sou, multipliant les aventures sans lendemain, fait tout son possible pour maintenir sa grande soeur en vie tout en tentant de gérer le chaos de sa propre existence. Dans ce roman à la fois tendre et touchant, Miriam Toews propose une réflexion bouleversante sur l''amour et sur ses limites.