Release date: 4/2/19
Rating: 4/5 stars
Genre: Women's fiction/historical fiction
Features: Strong women, Mennonite faith, community tragedy, crimes against women
Quotes:
"But is forgiveness that it coerced true forgiveness? . . . And isn't the lie of pretending to forgive with words but not with one's heart a more grievous sin than to simply no forgive? Can't there be a category of forgiveness that is up to God alone . . . ?
"Peters said these men are evil, the perpetrators, but that's not true. It's the quest for power . . . that is responsible for these attacks."
"We are wasting time . . . by passing this burden, this sack of stones, from one to the next, by pushing our pain away. We mustn't do this . . . Let's absorb it, each of us . . . Let's inhale it, let's digest it, let's process it into fuel."
Wow. What a stellar, thought-provoking novel. I flew through the book in a few days, and am still mulling over what I read.
To give some background, this book is a fictionalized account based on actual events that happened in a Bolivian Mennonite community between 2005 and 2009. (Here is a link about the event: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-14688458) Over a hundred women were raped at night by men in their community after being drugged by belladonna, a chemical often used to anesthetize cows. Toews' story picks up after the attacks have happened and the men have left the community and gone to town for a few days to post bail for the attackers. In their absence, eight women have secretly met in a barn loft to discuss what they should: should they leave the community, or stay? One man is present to take meeting notes for the women.
This book had such strong and fascinating characters. Although the women in the community were unable to read and write (and only knew the Bible from what the men had taught them), they had such intellectual and thoughtful ways of discussing the tragedy that had happened and what to do about it. They had to wrestle with their beliefs as Mennonites and their personal goals of protecting themselves and their children. I had to wonder what I would do in their situation, when all I knew was my community, I couldn't read or write, I was discouraged to think for myself, and I had no idea what lay outside in the world. Would I decide to leave, for a hopefully better life for me and my children? Or would I stay, hoping things would change for the better or fearful of what would happen if I left?
This book is for anyone who enjoys reading about strong women and dealing with a community tragedy.
