And when the family moved to the US the umlaut o was converted to "oe.
There is no English equivalent to umlaut "o", but the closest is the long "a" in "make" "w" is pronounced "v" in German. According to a number of sources, the likely transition seems to be that "van Toovs" or "Toovs" became "Tows" with an umlaut on the "o" when the family sought refuge in Germany. Toews is a common Mennonite Low German name, believed to be of Russian or Dutch origin.
She is a winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers Trust Marian Engel/Timothy Findley Award. Ryan Ellison was a confirmed bachelor who had sworn off all women. Garden of Thorns and Light - Booklist starred review The Magnificent Glass Globe - Whitney Award nomination.
Miriam Toews is the author of five previous bestselling novels: Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness (Canada Reads 2006, Canada Reads Canadian Bestseller of the Decade 2010), The Flying Troutmans, and Irma Voth, and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. Fantasy for teens, tweens, and young readers.