--- description: Find out why Women Talking is one of the best books of 2019. title: 'Women Talking' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2019 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86886635db99c685/698a05d0656a3f5eebbd935d/women-talking-miriam-toews-100-books-2019.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 14, 2019 # _Women Talking_ Miriam Toews by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  About a decade ago, a group of Mennonite men in Bolivia were arrested for repeatedly drugging and raping over 100 women and girls in their colony. Within the community, they’d blamed the attacks on demons sent to punish their victims for their sins. In her eighth book, Toews—who grew up Mennonite in Manitoba, Canada [imagines a clandestine meeting of the colony’s women](https://time.com/5562369/miriam-toews-women-talking/ "undefined"), as they discuss whether to forgive and forget, to rehabilitate the culprits or abandon the only home they’ve ever known. Literally a record of women talking, the novel balances high-stakes philosophical debate with tenderness and humor. The liveliness of this discourse among illiterate farmers’ wives becomes, in itself, a call to arms against the subjugation of women everywhere. **Buy now:** [_Women Talking_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1635572584/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time-books-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1635572584&linkId=911a749e639ebd16f5da9233c9537dab "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2019/5724545/women-talking/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2019/5724545/women-talking/"},"headline":"'Women Talking' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2019","datePublished":"2019-11-14T15:16:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:35:01.778Z","description":"Find out why Women Talking is one of the best books of 2019.","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2019/5724545/women-talking/","keywords":["Books","Must-Read Books of 2019"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86886635db99c685/698a05d0656a3f5eebbd935d/women-talking-miriam-toews-100-books-2019.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86886635db99c685/698a05d0656a3f5eebbd935d/women-talking-miriam-toews-100-books-2019.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2019/5724545/women-talking/","name":"'Women Talking' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2019"}}]}] ```