Toews returns home, virtually, for book club

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This article was published 18/09/2021 (1839 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Free Press, McNally Robinson Booksellers and Thin Air: the Winnipeg International Writers Festival are thrilled to welcome Manitoba-born, Toronto-based author Miriam Toews to the Free Press Book Club on Monday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. for a virtual discussion about her latest book, Fight Night.

Published on Aug. 24 by Knopf, Fight Night was recently announced as one of the 12 books to make the long list for the $100,000 Giller Prize. It’s the third time Toews has been in the running for the award; her 2004 novel A Complicated Kindness and 2014’s All My Puny Sorrows were both shortlisted for the prize.

Toews has never shied away from tackling tough issues such as mental illness, suicide and the more problematic issues surrounding her Mennonite upbringing and Mennonite culture. Fight Night revisits these elements again, as well as drawing from the author’s own life in other ways. The Elvira of the novel, for example, lives with her daughter — much in the same way Toews’ mother, also named Elvira, lives with the author in Toronto.

And while the 57-year-old Toews won’t be returning to Winnipeg for a live, in-person launch of Fight Night, she still holds a special place in her heart for Winnipeg, where one of her two children and half of her four grandchildren live. “I always get emotional around coming back to Winnipeg,” Toews told the Free Press prior to the launch of her 2018 novel Women Talking. “In my mind I like to imagine Toronto and Winnipeg as one big city with a vast park between them. In Toronto it takes two hours to get anywhere, and it takes two hours to get to Winnipeg by plane, so I just like to think of it as one city. I just live in the far eastern suburb of Winnipeg — that’s better for me psychologically.”

Toews is an engaging, articulate speaker and reader, and Fight Night once again delivers at the high level her readers have come to expect. The Sept. 27 book club meeting is sure to be an absolute treat.

The Free Press Book Club is free to join at any time — simply visit the website at wfp.to/bookclub and register your email address to receive updates and information about current and future books and meetings. Replays of all previous meetings are accessible on the Free Press YouTube channel, and copies of Fight Night are available at McNally Robinson.

Book club members who are Winnipeg Free Press subscribers are also entered to win a monthly prize pack which includes the following month’s book pick and a Free Press tote bag.

For questions for Miriam Toews or about the book club in general, email bookclub@winnipegfreepress.com.