They share many characteristics.Įlvira, the character, is a larger-than-life Mennonite grandmother with a serious heart condition, who has dealt with great tragedy. And depression: a father and a beloved older sister who have ended their own lives.įight Night’s Elvira is inspired and based on Toews’s real mother, Elvira. A wise, older woman, the heart of the family. Because Fight Night inhabits a world that Toews’s readers will be familiar with – and its characters, or versions of them: A Mennonite family from rural Manitoba. Perhaps it’s the “in a world” part of the movie-trailer trope that I’m stuck on. The novel’s frantic and beautiful final scenes.

Swiv and Grandma trying to drive a stick-shift convertible through the streets of Fresno, Calif.

Or maybe it’s because of how cinematic this novel is: Grandma sitting on the curb outside the 7-Eleven, singing hymns with a homeless man wearing her old Winnipeg Jets sweatpants. “It’s all just wild and hilarious and cool,” she said.) Her 2011 novel Irma Voth has also been optioned for the screen. (Toews visited the set a few days before our interview. Why the movie trailer guy in my head? Maybe because of what’s happening with Toews’s career – a film based on her 2014 novel All My Puny Sorrows is about to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival another film based on her last novel, Women Talking, is currently in production with an A-list Hollywood cast – Rooney Mara, Frances McDormand and Claire Foy.

Author miriam toews