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A treasure of Canadian letters, Miriam Toews has earned numerous awards. With Irma Voth, Toews delivers a witty novel of great humanity and emotional poignancy. Cast from her Mennonite family for marrying a Mexican man she barely knows, 19-year-old Irma finds herself in an untenable situation. But when a film crew arrives to document her insular community, Irma begins a remarkable journey to redemption and discovering all she may become.

Nineteen-year-old Irma Voth lives in a Mennonite community in northern Mexico, surrounded by desert and both physically and culturally isolated from the surrounding towns and cities. It’s been six years since her family left Canada to escape the prying eyes of the government and preserve their religious freedom, but Irma still misses the minor freedoms she had in their small town.

The closeted life of nineteen-year-old Irma Voth, recently married and more recently deserted, is turned on its head when a film crew arrives. They have come to make a movie about the strict Mennonite community in which she and her family live. Against her family's wishes, Irma takes a job on set and glimpses the wider world and a path towards something that feels like freedom.