SAVOUR A STORY

Erica Wagner explores the intergenerational household at the heart of a life-affirming novel

Fight Night, the Canadian author Miriam Toews’ eighth novel, is a vigorous joyride of a book, accomplishing a remarkable balancing act between light and darkness. Narrated by nine-year-old Swiv, the story is in the form of a long letter to her absent father, who has walked out, leaving her with her mother Mooshie, a struggling actress, and her forceful grandmother Elvira. Heavily pregnant, Mooshie copes with her husband’s disappearance and her own exhaustion; Elvira, in looking after Swiv, imparts life lessons and a sense of adventure. ‘What makes a tragedy bearable and unbearable is the same thing – which is that life goes on,’ she tells her, encapsulating the theme of resilience at the heart of the tale.

Toews (which rhymes with ‘saves’) sees the novel as the latest entry in her body of work, which she describes as ‘one big book’: an ongoing reckoning with her upbringing in a strict Mennonite community. Her 2018 bestseller Women Talking, about a group of Mennonite women reacting to sexual violence from within their colony, is based on real-life events and has been made into a film starring Frances McDormand, Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley, out later this year. ‘Women Talking is completely different in tone, setting and subject from Fight Night – but then again, it’s not,’ Toews says. ‘They are both about the lives of girls and women.’

The author has never shied away from talking about her family’s painful history: both her father and her sister Marjorie committed suicide. Those themes of struggle and tragedy recur in Fight Night, yet it also showcases Toews’ gift for dialogue, and her ability to highlight humour and hope even in difficult circumstances. No matter what else is going on, Elvira still has the energy to play online Scrabble or to go into town for a manicure (not to mention electrolysis on her chin hair), inviting her granddaughter along for the ride.

Elvira is always thinking of Swiv, and this gives the book its warmth. No wonder: Toews wrote it, she says, in part as a gift to her own grandchildren. ‘They are going to have questions about their family, about where they come from. I imagined the day when they would be saying, “Who is this person? Who is Aunt Marjorie, and who was your father and what happened?” I wanted to address that, and I also wanted to write about my mother, Elvira; I gave the grandmother in the book her actual name,’ she explains. ‘She’s an incredible force in our lives – such a source of joy, comfort and support.’

The real Elvira lives with Toews in Toronto, with her daughter and grandchildren just across the yard, so the author’s dramatisation of the deep affection and challenges within an intergenerational household is rooted in personal experience. But the most valuable lessons Elvira gives Swiv are for all of us: ultimately, the message of Fight Night is the importance of staying the course and embracing the enduring power of love.

‘Fight Night’ (£14.99, Faber & Faber) is out now.