Swing Low: A Life

Author:	Toews, Miriam
Binding:	Paperback
List Price:	$24.99
Our Price:	$4.90 $3.68 CAD
Qty Avail:	144

Additional Info
Overview

ISBN:	9781639734771
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Language:	English
Page Count:	228
Publication Date:	8/26/2025
Size:	8.25" l x 5.50" w x 0.63"
Series:	N/A

Category	Subject
Biography & Autobiography	Personal Memoirs

Internationally bestselling novelist Miriam Toews recounts her father’s life — as he might have told it — right up to his final day.

One morning, Mel Toews put on his coat and hat, walked out of town, and took his own life. A loving husband and father, a faithful member of the Mennonite church, and a much-loved school teacher, Mel was a pillar of his community. Yet, after a lifetime of struggling with bipolar disorder, he could no longer face the ruptures in his world.

In this memoir-in-his-voice, Toews uses her formidable skills as a writer to explore not only her father’s illness and death, but the small-town Mennonite world, the burdens of silence, the weight of duty, and the attempt to honour a life that seemed “ordinary” yet extraordinary.

“The magic of Swing Low is that Toews makes a life that looked ordinary, even grindingly so, seem exalted.” Maria Russo

“A touching memoir.” Publishers Weekly

“A powerful portrait of a man who, despite all odds, managed to live a normal life.” Kirkus Reviews