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| Author | Miriam Toews |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | 2018 |
| Publication place | Canada |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
| Preceded by | All My Puny Sorrows |
| Followed by | Fight Night |
Women Talking (2018) is the seventh novel by Canadian writer Miriam Toews. Toews describes her novel as "an imagined response to real events," the gas-facilitated rapes that took place on the Manitoba Colony, a remote and isolated Mennonite community in Bolivia:[1] Between 2005 and 2009, over a hundred girls and women in the colony woke up to discover that they had been raped in their sleep. These nighttime attacks were denied or dismissed by colony elders until finally it was revealed that a group of men from the colony were spraying an animal anaesthetic into their victims' houses to render them unconscious.[2] Toews' novel centers on the secret meetings of eight Mennonite women who, on behalf of the other women in the colony, must decide how to react to these traumatic events. They have only 48 hours before the colony men, who are away to post bail for the rapists, return.
The novel was a finalist for the Governor General's Award[3] and the Trillium Book Award,[4] and was longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.[5]
In 2022, the novel was adapted into a film of the same name, written and directed by Sarah Polley and starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, and Frances McDormand.[6]
- ^ Ermelino, Louisa (November 9, 2018). "In This Religion-Heavy Novel, The Devil Isn't the Only Evil". Publishers Weekly.
- ^ "The rapes haunting a community that shuns the 21st Century". BBC News. 26 August 2011.
- ^ "Hage, Toews among finalists for Governor General's Literary Awards". The National Post. 3 October 2018.
- ^ "Dionne Brand and Miriam Toews among finalists for Ontario's Trillium Book Award". The Globe and Mail. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
- ^ "Women Talking: 2020 Longlist". International Dublin Literary Award.
- ^ Vlessing, Etan (16 June 2021). "Rooney Mara, Claire Foy Join Frances McDormand in 'Women Talking' From Plan B, Orion". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 August 2022.