Women Talking

For several years, girls and women in the remote Mennonite colony of Molotschna have reported assaults in the night by what some in the community claim are ghosts or demons. Others blame “wild female imagination”—until several of the men behind the attacks are discovered and apprehended. While the men of the colony venture into town to bail out the accused, the women meet secretly to determine how to respond. They have just two days to decide before the men return, along with the assailants. Acerbic, funny, tender and wise, acclaimed author Miriam Toews’s spellbinding seventh novel contains a universe of thinking and feeling about gender, justice, freedom and power.