Didn't enjoy this novel at all. Struggled to get half way thru it and finally gave up.

Toews writes with humour about young Mennonite women escaping the patriarchy of their famililes and religion, but the book is a variation on earlier novels. I would like this gifted writer to turn to other themes.

It took a few pages to get into the writing style, but after that I was totally absorbed in this story. It's beautifully written and one of the most satisfying books I've ever read. Outstanding.

There is nothing humorous in this story, it goes from human tragedy to tragedy and still Irma struggles to make a life for herself in the face of grim parenting and a surreal culture in rural Mexico. Irma bears the burden of her mandate to always tell the truth. She blames herself for the crimes of her father, the cowardice of her mother, the unrestrained rebellion of her oldest sister and the emotional neglect of her errant husband. Irma believes she is the fulcrum of bad behaviour in her family and her community. The most poignant vignette for me took place when a love starved Irma went to confession in a Catholic church in the hope of hearing the priest call her ‘my daughter’. Towes does not reward the reader with closure after we have waded through all that sadness. A well written story but grim reading for the sensitive or optimistic reader.

This is an astounding book. It tells the story in the first person of a young woman who flees her Mennonite family in Mexico along with her two younger sisters to escape her father's rage. As the story unfolds, you learn of the ways that her actions have led to tragedy and her struggle to come to terms with forgiveness. The writing is sparse and unembellished but it is so true, so painfully, searingly honest that it can leave you breathless.

Toew's earlier themes were repeated in this book, so it lacked freshness, but it still provided lots of laughs.

A wonderful book about a mennonite woman whose father is patriarchal in the extreme. They live in a mennonite colony in Mexico. Irma varries jorge in the drug trade, they live in the father's other house and take care of the chickens for him. Jorge leaves and a film company comes to the place to make a movie and Irma's life changes dramatically. She is a strong character. naive but smart and loving. Her sister has long ago left and Irma discovers what has happened y her which is the dramatic ending. Tear inducing and suspensful.

Great book- A graet follow up to A complicated Kindness

Easily the quirkiest novel I have ever read. After Tom Stoppard's offerings of course.

Irma is 19, lives in a rural Mennonite community in Mexico, and has been ostracized by her father for marrying a young Mexican man. Her father has expected her to live in another house on the property in exchange for work. Her husband, Jorge, sticks around for a while, but then tells her she asks too many questions, and makes himself scarce. When Irma's father rents the remaining house to a film crew making a movie, Irma is intrigued and finds herself working as a translator between the director and a German actress. Meanwhile Irma's younger sister Aggie is finding life under their father's rules unbearable and wants to run away. As the situation deteriorates, Irma finds she must make a choice and face the past she has always denied. This is a strong story with elements of coming-of-age and independence. The characters are complex and interesting.