Irma Voth

Miriam Toews is a master storyteller at the height of her powers, who manages with trademark wry wit and a fierce tenderness to be at once heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny in Irma Voth.

     Banished to a neighbouring farm for the sin of marrying a non-Mennonite Mexican, Irma Voth lives apart from the other Mennonites in her colony. Her new husband soon abandons her, and her only reprieve from isolation comes from the occasional secret visits of her younger sister Aggie and the little gifts sent by her mother. But change comes when a film crew from Mexico City moves into the empty house next to Irma's to make a film about Mennonites. Irma is hired on as translator and cook,…