Miriam Toews imagines her way into an insular community grappling with sexual assault
In her new novel, women in a Mennonite colony plot their own liberation.
Mennonites
“My novel is just one small part of a conversation that can’t be silenced.”
All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews
This is a book about deep, protracted, unrelenting sadness, and it knows it.
When pastors Constanzo and Marisela Aguirre decided to copastor a congregation in Aurora, Illinois, they had to give up health insurance because the small congregation could not afford it. Soon the Aguirres and other Mennonite pastors may have a solution. An insurance plan created by the Mennonite Church USA would give every pastor essentially the same coverage—with larger and wealthier congregations subsidizing smaller congregations.
I don’t want to leave my body or its loves. I wouldn’t rather be at home with the Lord; I want to be right here.
