“Irma Voth” is a “coming of age story” about a teenage girl with that name. Her family are Mennonites who lived  in Canada but then went to Mexico in their continuing search of land where they will be left alone by the government. She has been shunned by her family for marrying a Mexican and then her husband leaves her. Women don’t do well in her family so she ends leaving her family with a younger teenage sister and an infant sister that her Mother gives to her.

The book is about her adventures as she finds her way in the world and encounters with others. Besides that the book is about escaping an old life and finding a new life and what that costs her and in a twist what her quest for independence cost others. It is about deep secrets and the costs of those secrets. I found the book amazing. It is 250 pages and I’m not a particularly fast reader but I zipped through in about three hours. It’s one of those rare books where the story is so compelling and the writing is so smooth that one loses the sensation of reading.

Besides being a great story the book presents Mennonites as three dimensional real people and not idealized concepts as portrayed so many times in movies and television.

I give the book five stars out of five.  I got my copy at the library. I recommend that you do the same.

I’m going to be reading more of Miriam Toews (pronounced tâves). She is Canadian of Mennonite descent. She may be the best author that I had never heard of. She also starred in a Mexican movie, “Silent Light.”  Must be nice to be talented.