Miriam Toews: A loud voice in a town once ruled by silence

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The award-winning author who used her strict Mennonite upbringing to tell its unspoken stories.

Miriam Toews is one of Canada’s most acclaimed novelists, but her journey began far from the literary world. Raised in the conservative Mennonite town of Steinbach, Manitoba, she grew up surrounded by deep faith, strict expectations, and a culture where silence often covered over difficult truths. The town didn't even have a train station to keep it separate from the 'worldy' practices of contemporary society. At home, her devout father Mel’s lifelong battle with mental illness and her mother Elvira’s rebellious streak created a world of tenderness and tension — one Miriam would later transform into funny and powerful fiction.

Miriam reflects on how she became a writer: the restless imagination that sparked during childhood, her early escape from the confines of her community, and the personal losses that shaped novels such as A Complicated Kindness, All My Puny Sorrows, and Women Talking. With success also came the cost of telling stories about identity, family, mental health and faith — stories her community never dare speak aloud.

This programme contains references to suicide. If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. Details of help available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide. www.befrienders.org

Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producers: Laura Thomas and Edgar Maddicott Editor: Munazza Khan

Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys — spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Got a story to tell? Send an email to [email protected] or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	Hello, I'm Emma Barnett. For most of my career, I've been on live radio, and I love it.
0:13.3	But I've always wondered, what if we'd had more time? How much deeper does the story go?
0:19.2	I remember having this very sharp thought
0:21.7	that what you do right now,
0:23.6	this is it, this defines your life.
0:26.0	I'm ready to talk and ready to listen.
0:28.3	I'm insulted by how little the medical community is ever bothered with this.
0:33.9	Ready to talk with me, Emma Barnard, is my new podcast.
0:37.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:41.5	He did ask, what would be so bad about staying here? And I remember just joking and challenging him in the way that, you know, 17-year-old would. Do you want me to marry, you know, so-and-so and get a job at Penner Foods?
0:55.0	I remember saying, well, you know me, Dad.
0:57.8	I mean, do you really see me being happy here?
1:03.1	There's a town on the flat expanses of the Canadian prairies where Faith runs deep.
1:14.0	There's no train station to link it to the outside world, and on Sunday mornings nothing but the sound of hymns being sung. It's here in Steinbeck, Manitoba
1:21.4	that Miriam Taves grew up, a sharp, funny, restless girl in a stifling conservative society that prized obedience
1:30.4	and silence. Sometimes Miriam's devout father Mel took that literally. He would go for long
1:37.2	periods without speaking at home. But at the school where he taught, he was a whirlwind. Bipolar
1:44.1	disorder was the diagnosis.
1:47.1	Miriam's mother, Elvira, was in many ways his opposite. She filled the home with laughter
1:53.0	and resistance. From that place came one of Canada's most distinctive literary voices.
2:00.9	This is the story of how a girl from a strict Mennonite town
	...

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