Irma Voth: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
In a rare coming-of-age novel that blends dark truths with uplifting transformations, acclaimed author Miriam Toews delivers the story of a young Mennonite woman, vulnerable yet wise beyond her years, who carries the burden of a terrible family secret with her during a remarkable journey of survival and redemption. Irma Voth, from the award-winning author of Swing Low and A Complicated Kindness, is a poignant and elegant exploration of one woman's difficult odyssey to discover her own potential—a path that leads her away from her close-knit community and into the wide and unknown world beyond.
"The nicely drawn contrast between what Irma knows and suspects and what the reader understands about her world gives Irma Voth a suspenseful charge from the first pages." —Jane Smiley, Globe and Mail (Toronto)
"A literary novel marked by charm, wit and an original approach to language." —Kirkus Reviews
"Toews . . . is clearly an artistic powerhouse." —The Gazette
"There is something quite mesmerizing about Toews's prose. It's to do with the rhythm of her language, with the seeming effortlessness of it and, when combined with her quick, offhand wit, it can enliven even the darkest of moments." —Toronto Star
"Toews's ability to generate comedy and heartache at the same time just soars." —Maclean's
"Wryly funny and perceptive." —National Post
"A beautiful, heartbreaking novel. . . . Calls to mind Ann-Marie MacDonald's 1996 epic, Fall On Your Knees." —Winnipeg Free Press
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Miriam Toews. (2011). Irma Voth: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Miriam Toews. 2011. Irma Voth: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Miriam Toews, Irma Voth: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2011.
MLA Citation (style guide)Miriam Toews. Irma Voth: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2011.
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Miriam Toews was born in the small Mennonite town of Steinbach, Manitoba. She has published five novels and a memoir of her father, and is the recipient of numerous literary awards in Canada, including the Governor General's Literary Award (for A Complicated Kindness) and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize (for The Flying Troutmans). In 2010 she received the prestigious Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award for her body of work. Irma Voth is Toews's most recent novel. She lives in Toronto.
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- This novel about a daughter estranged from her religious family "combines an intimate coming-of-age tale with picaresque and extremely effective prose" (Publishers Weekly).
In a rare coming-of-age novel that blends dark truths with uplifting transformations, acclaimed author Miriam Toews delivers the story of a young Mennonite woman, vulnerable yet wise beyond her years, who carries the burden of a terrible family secret with her during a remarkable journey of survival and redemption. Irma Voth, from the award-winning author of Swing Low and A Complicated Kindness, is a poignant and elegant exploration of one woman's difficult odyssey to discover her own potential—a path that leads her away from her close-knit community and into the wide and unknown world beyond.
"The nicely drawn contrast between what Irma knows and suspects and what the reader understands about her world gives Irma Voth a suspenseful charge from the first pages." —Jane Smiley, Globe and Mail (Toronto)
"A literary novel marked by charm, wit and an original approach to language." —Kirkus Reviews
"Toews . . . is clearly an artistic powerhouse." —The Gazette
"There is something quite mesmerizing about Toews's prose. It's to do with the rhythm of her language, with the seeming effortlessness of it and, when combined with her quick, offhand wit, it can enliven even the darkest of moments." —Toronto Star
"Toews's ability to generate comedy and heartache at the same time just soars." —Maclean's
"Wryly funny and perceptive." —National Post
"A beautiful, heartbreaking novel. . . . Calls to mind Ann-Marie MacDonald's 1996 epic, Fall On Your Knees." —Winnipeg Free Press - reviews
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- content: "A strong and skillful novel . . . a parable of redemption, a powerful theme . . . that leaves the reader with a comforting glow of hope."
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- source: Montreal Gazette
- content: "In this compelling and beautiful novel, Toews's quirky and authentic voice shows increasing range and maturity. She is well on her way to fulfilling her promise as an important and serious writer."
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- source: Publishers Weekly
- content: "Toews . . . combines an intimate coming-of-age tale with picaresque and extremely effective prose."
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- source: Times Literary Supplement (London)
- content: "Miriam Toews has a remarkably light touch. She combines a playfully sardonic humour with crushing pathos."
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- source: Kirkus Reviews
- content: "A literary novel marked by charm, wit and an original approach to language."
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- source: Maria Russo, New York Times Book Review
- content: " . . . endearingly odd and affecting . . . [Toews] writes with an instinctive grasp of the adolescent point of view."
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- source: The Washington Independent Review of Books
- content: "A witty and thoughtful coming-of-age story. . . . A novel about parenthood and sisterhood, and about redefining those relationships as people grow . . . it succeeds tremendously."
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May 9, 2011
Toews's (A Complicated Kindness) story unfolds in a remote Mennonite outpost in Mexico, where the strictly observant cross paths with the narcos, creating an uncomfortable cultural mix of Spanish, English, and Low German. Nineteen-year-old Irma tells of her own alienation from the Mennonites after marrying a young Mexican man. Though she still lives near her family, her patriarchal father has ordered her shunned (her spirited little sister, however, continues to visit, half-angry, half-longing for brief contact). After a quick wedding, Irma's husband is rarely home, and Irma is lonely until an eccentric crew of filmmakers arrives to make a movie set among the Mennonites. Irma works as a translator and finds much in common with these artists and lost souls. But her father holds an overblown hatred of the filmmakers, believing them evil. When his menacing opposition begins to threaten the filmâand her sister's safetyâIrma, ennobled by her experience on the production, makes a radical choice that will greatly affect her family. With her fifth novel, Toews, who was born into a Mennonite community in Canada, combines an intimate coming-of-age tale with picaresque and extremely effective prose.
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September 1, 2011
An unworldly Mennonite girl with a tainted past considers a life without the direction of her father, her husband or God, then implements it, in the latest from Canadian writer Toews (The Flying Troutmans, 2008, etc.).
Nineteen-year-old Irma is already breaking away from her Mennonite community in Mexico as the novel opens. Her marriage to Jorge, who is involved in the drug trade, has brought down the wrath of her dictatorial father, and the family chasm only deepens when a film crew arrives and Irma starts working for them as a translator. Irma's voice—minimal, introverted, bewildered—lends poetic intensity, softened by a tragi-comic edge, to the initially slow-moving story. As tensions rise between the bohemian film crew and the rigid religious community and her marriage disintegrates, Irma plans her escape, accompanied by her 13-year-old sister and, then, at her mother's behest, the new baby. Now the narrative springs to life as the girls exchange austerity for freedom and friendship in Mexico City, where students help them to settle. Pleasure and creativity enliven them, but past deeds must still be reconciled, a task which Irma eventually begins to tackle.
A literary novel marked by charm, wit and an original approach to language, weakened by polarized characters and a shift from gritty to soft-centered.
(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
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August 1, 2011
Toews' unique voice shines in her fifth novela simultaneously poignant and humorous tale of a young Mennonite woman breaking out of her suffocating cocoon. When Irma Voth was 13, her father brought her family from Canada to a Mexican Mennonite community, where she still lives. Irma's father disowned her when she married Jorge, who dabbles in drug smuggling and is abusive and frequently absent. Her prospects dramatically improve when a film crew from Mexico City arrives, hoping to make a movie about her community. Irma is hired as a translator, and her world suddenly expands as Diego, the director, teaches her about the creative process, and his leading actress spouts philosophy in her off-hoursstrange ideas that Irma soaks up like a sponge. But her father disapproves of the filthy pornography-producing crew and puts a bounty on Diego's head. Toews perfectly captures this young woman's attempt to find her niche in a world so different from that in which she was raised as she leaves her family behind, filled with hope and certain that her future can only be better.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
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