Swing Low: A Life

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