Miriam Toews’s upcoming novel will terrify you.

TALK THERAPY With her upcoming novel, Miriam Toews has written one of the scariest indictments of patriarchy in years.

Miriam Toews isn’t known as a horror writer, yet her upcoming novel, women talking, might just be one of the scariest books i’ve ever read. Although it’s really not that much of a departure for toews, who has never shied away from dark subject matter. Her last novel—the awardwinning all my puny sorrows—is the based-on-true-events story of a family dealing with one sister’s repeated suicide attempts. It wasn’t necessarily the most obvious choice for bestselling book of the moment, but such is toews’s talent and heart. She was able to craft a heartbreaking story of loss and empathy without it being maudlin or (too) depressing. In women talking, the writer has set a similar challenge for herself. The novel imagines what the women in a mennonite colony in bolivia do after it’s discovered that the men in their community have been drugging and raping the women, regardless of age or relation. Toews manages to balance the story of female rage and empowerment with hope and touches of humour. »