The author was given a writing prompt for a conference, to answer the question, "Why I write?" For her, it is a complicated answer that generated this memoir, which is sad and searching, without simple answers or resolution. As many of her novels do, this book revisits and worries the questions around the deaths of her father and sister. Filled with regret and sorrow, there are some small nuggets of humor, but it felt as if Toews' own life is a distraction to her, as she attempts to understand those two deaths.

Having just read Toews' All My Puny Sorrows, her memoir, A Truce That is Not Peace hit more than ever. I watched the stories mirror one another and this made them land even more beautifully. She contemplates the question "why do I write" in so many beautiful and abstract ways. I loved this.

This is a uniquely written memoir that I can only describe as gutting. It’s hard to not give this work 5 stars because of the vulnerability shown and quality writing. The author attempts to answer questions about why she writes and the answers will haunt you. Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This book is so appropriate for the times we are living through right now. With humor but also a serious tone of grief and guilt, the author is showing us how she copes and deals with these tough emotions. I learned a lot about Miriam herself through this book and it’s rare we get a glimpse at an author in this way.

I was disappointed when I realized I was approaching the end of this fabulous memoir. Miriam Towes created a brilliant memoir that partly focused on her wish to create a Wind Museum, included hilarious vignettes of traveling with a boyfriend in her youth, becoming a grandmother, and contemplating her sister's suicide. Everything in this memoir was an enjoyable read even when the writing was about painful experiences because Toews is a master of prose. I've already been telling friends they need to request this book at local bookstores and libraries. It's a must read. Seriously.

If you’ve read Miriam Toews’ fiction, you’ll know that one of the most predominant themes in her work is suicide. Her life and her writing have been consumed with trying to understand the deaths of her father and sister.

In this memoir, Toews has created a fictional premise – she has been invited by the Conversación Comité in Mexico City to share a story or an essay on the subject “Why do I write?” The memoir tries to answer this question, never to the satisfaction of the Director of the Comité. Maybe not to the author’s own satisfaction, either.

None of it is chronological or complete. It is heartbreaking and funny, like her fiction. The short book includes letters that Miriam wrote to her sister Marj when the former was traveling in Europe. Vignettes about her family life, now and then. Musings about starting a wind museum. Trying to connect silence, suicide, and writing. And it’s about living with all of this and maybe never understanding it.

Miriam Toews memoir is unique well written and as a fan of the authors other books I was immediately involved.Interesting not your ordinary memoir that I really enjoyed reciting.#netgalley #bloomsbury

The word that keeps coming to mind after finishing this book is "searching." There are no simple answers or perspectives when it comes to a story, much less one's own story.

This one is interesting for sure, a memoir coming out from Miriam Toews in August 2025.

I have always been a big Miriam Toews fan, and have read almost everything she has written, so it was really interesting to get to read her memoir, although in a sense, it certainly doesn't read like a traditional memoir. In fact, sometimes it reminded me of "Ducks, Newburyport" by Lucy Ellmann in it's randomness and 'here is exactly what I am thinking' style of essays and arbitrary thoughts.

Toews has had a full life, with a lot of ups and downs, and some often real sad moments, but she maintains a sharp humour and wit. There are acute observations, and feelings of a deep sense of regret.
A lot of pondering on birth, and death and love as a balm.

I absolutely love Miriam Toews…. Canadian writer of Mennonite descent.
I’ve read most of her novels ….(some filled with humor - others painfully sad > drawing characters from real-life experiences).
I’ve also seen two of her film adaptations from “All My Puny Sorrows” and “Women Talking”.
All of Toews work is illuminated by her deeply affecting …. deeply layered ….absorbing and breathtaking prose.

“A Truce That Is Not Peace”, is a non-fiction biography-memoir. Those of us who are fans of Miriam Toews, know some of the history in this book….(adding passionate energy for me).
It’s so real - deeply rooted in truth, heart, intimacy, thoughts, reflections, and emotions….that it’s one of those books you want to reread the minute you are finished.

Miriam was invited to a literary event in Mexico City. Her assignment was to submit a paper on “Why Do You Write?”
Ha…seems like an easy task for a writer ….right?
Ha…not so fast….the complexity suggested more layers and depth than initially assumed.
There was more to the question than meets the eye… it wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
As quoted in the blurb:
“we, her readers, come to see the question is as impossible to answer as deciding whether to live as a comedy or tragedy”.

I enjoyed this 192 page memoir very much. (VERY).
A few topics, memories, and themes we are privy to: [in no order]…
….the Mennonite community …
….Mennonite women …
….Toews parents, (their language: Plautdietsch-East Low German with Dutch influence)…
….Toronto, City of Winnipeg…
….Books & Authors (W.B. Yeats, Josephine Baker, Mary Shelley, Yiyun Li, etc)…
….Memories of laughing with her children and grandchildren … [including an adorable tale about Miriam’s grandson when he was turning five and all he wanted was rope for his birthday]
….Memories of her sister, mother, father, and grandmother…
….Writing thoughts …
…. Suicide thoughts… (including grief, guilt, emptiness, and hopelessness)
…. Memories of a Caribbean Scrabble Tournament cruise with her mother …
….Miriam’s ex- husband
….Singing lullabies …
…. Walking …
….University …
…. Journalism … radio documentaries …
….The Director of Conversacion informed Miriam that her submission “Why Do I Write” was not suitable …
….An attempt to undermine her sister’s silence …
….Visits with a Russian Jungian therapist …
….Dreams …
….Past family vacations [Ecadorian Amazon jungle where her family was robbed atvgunpoint]
….Memories of a cedar chest filled with journals and inspirational quotes …
….etc. etc. etc.

A few excerpts:
“Is writing the acceptable alternative to killing oneself?
Does suicide and the pain and preserve the truth? Does writing attempt to achieve the same thing, and are both suicide and writing and comprehensible?”

“This book is a poor substitute for self-mutilation and murder, but it absorbs my rage well, like a gasoline-soaked rag. I want to get on a plane and fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly anywhere. Off the earth, preferably, and into another galaxy.”

“The silence of my sister, the suffering that destroyed her language, or destroyed language, or destroyed faith in language’s ability to communicate anything of the human soul, or of her soul, it’s all wind, the unmaking of her world, of the world—and in that space or spot of land or corridor is her asking me to write, to re-make my world, her world, the world”.

“A Truce That Is Not Peace” is a significant memoir ….
It’s a perfect dance between unsentimental but heartbreaking elegance.

Such a unique book, as I've come to expect from Toews. Funny, sad, brilliant- all the complicated things she does do well.