Swing Low is a bold, gracefully written, and compassionate recounting of one mans heartbreaking battle with depression. In this moving meditation on illness, family, faith, and love, Mels daughter, critically acclaimed novelist and reporter Miriam Toews, recounts her fathers life as he would have told it, in his own voice, right up to the day of his final walk. Yet after a lifetime of struggling with bipolar disorder, he could no longer face the darkness that clouded his world. A loving husband and father, a faithful member of the Mennonite church, and an immensely popular schoolteacher, Mel was a pillar of his close-knit community. From the Back Cover One morning, Mel Toews put on his coat and hat, walked out of town, and took his own life. Personal and touching, a stirring counterpart to her novel IrmaVoth and reminiscent of works by Susan Cheever, Gail Caldwell, Mary Karr, and Alexandra Styron, Swing Low is an elegiac ode to a difficult life by an author drawing from the deepest well of insight, craft, and emotion. Globe and Mail (Canada) Reverberating with emotional power, authenticity, and insight, Swing Low is Miriam Toewss daring and deeply affecting memoir of her fathers struggle with manic depression in a small Mennonite community in rural Canada. Healing is a likely outcome of a book imbued with the righteous anger, compassion and humanity of Swing Low. Book Synopsis Audacious, original and profoundly moving. Personal and touching, a stirring counterpart to her novel IrmaVoth and reminiscent of works by Susan Cheever, Gail Caldwell, Mary Karr, and Alexandra Styron, Swing Low is an elegiacode to a difficult life by an author drawing from the deepest well of insight, craft, and emotion. Globe and Mail (Canada) Reverberatingwith emotional power, authenticity, and insight, Swing Low isMiriam Toews daring and deeply affecting memoir ofher father s struggle with manic depression in a small Mennonite community inrural Canada. Healing is a likely outcome of a bookimbued with the righteous anger, compassion and humanity of Swing Low. About the Book Audacious, original and profoundly moving.

Miriam toews website