Toews is an author unlike any other; the personal nature of her writing is global in its appeal. This autobiographical work uses a pastiche — a literary conceit that requires Toews to answer the question “Why do I write?” — to send Toews toward herself and the request her late sister asked of her. If my sister is gone, what does it mean to write to her still? asks the author. At its core — and this book is all core — this book entreats a reader to feel the most difficult emotions. It reminds us not to leave each other alone. Being together may not save us — it did not save Toews’s sister — but Miriam Toews argues that feeling together is still worth doing.
A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews, (List Price: $26.99, Bloomsbury Publishing, 9781639734740, August 2025)
Reviewed by Julia Paganelli Marin, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas