Miriam Toews manages to capture the levity and the sorrow of the women of the Meloschna colony as they struggle to decide whether to stay and fight, leave, or do nothing in the wake of years of sexual assault. Told through the lens of a perceptive male narrator, Toews contemplates the role of women in a society that has decided that they are little more than property. I found this text to be very insightful; Toews creates multi-faceted characters who are all already rebelling against their prescribed roles and yet cling to their current reality. The tone of the novel manages to be uplifting despite the devastating trauma that lies underneath the surface.

The fact that this book is based on true events makes it super powerful. I love how it is written through the voice/documentation created by August. Well worth the read, I look forward to reading more books by Toews.

Effective ending, despite the fact that the major action of the finale is telegraphed early. It's about the journey, presumably.

Based on a true story, at center are eight women living in a highly patriarchal, autocratic Mennonite community who have secretly retreated to a barn loft to discuss their options. For years women and girls in the community have awakened sore, bruised, and bleeding and were told they were being attacked by demons in the night or that they had overactive imaginations. The demons have turned out to be men from their community who have rendered them unconscious with belladonna and then attacked them. The women have established three options: do nothing, stay and fight, or leave and these eight women have been given the task of deciding between options two and three by all who disagree with "do nothing". The resultant discussion is remarkable as, individually and as a group, they dissect who they are, what they believe in, what their responsibilities are, what the boundaries of love include, and face their fears. They are illiterate, speak only the language of their community, have no experience with the world "outside", cannot even read a map so the option to leave is not simple. There are disagreements, funny exchanges between rival philosophies, heartfelt expressions of love and caring but they are under time constraints because the men of the community have gone to town for two days to raise money to bail the attackers out of jail and if they are leaving they must make their escape in advance of the return. Wonderful characters, outstanding dialogue, and help from unexpected individuals.

This is not a long book so doesn't take much time to read. The topic of the novel is how abused women in a religious colony in South America decide what actions to take after several men in the colony who have abused them have been taken to the city jail. The author has a novel way of telling the women's story through minutes taken of their discussions about what they should do to protect themselves and their children from future harm by these men when they return to the colony after getting bailed out from jail. These discussions didn't hold my interest for long, but I continued to read to see how the author ended the story. She always has a point of view or a twist at the end of her stories and, in this story, the revelation didn't disappoint.

Too many characters to keep up with, and unfortunately I felt the dialogue and storyline of these women to be too modern and idealistic for what I would really think these conversations would have been. Based on a true story, I decided to read up on some of the news articles that covered this Mennonite society and situation, and I wish the story more accurately reflected the trials and tribulations of what had happened. In short, too much of a fairy tale and intelligent conversations between characters for me. I would have preferred to read a more raw and disorganized story for this particular one.

Tragic Story. Too many characters to keep track of and hard to read. I kept with it for a while as it helped me fall asleep at night but really would not recommend.

10 years ago i purchased one of her books -forgot the name. Tossed it into the fire after 20 blasphemophous (sp) pages.

Hard to read, couldn't keep my interest. Not as exciting as the description is made out to be. The women end up discussing topics far off base from the description and sole reason for meeting, Did not complete.

Hard to read. Did not complete.