In Miriam Toews’s novel, Women Talking, the women of a remote Mennonite colony are hold secret meetings to talk about the crimes of the men who they live alongside. After years of being told that they were suffering from hysterical delusions, the women “came to understand that they were collectively dreaming one dream, and that it wasn’t a dream at all.”

Women Talking is a response to the real life events on a Mennonite settlement in Bolivia between 2005 and 2009.

Miriam Toews talks to World Book Club readers in Toronto and around the world about her unique and powerful story about the power of language and solidarity.

(Photo: Miriam Toews, Canadian author at the Hay Festival, 4 June, 2022 in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. Credit: David Levenson/Getty Images)