Women Talking by Miriam Toews

 Women Talking by Miriam Toews

A group of women in a Mennonite community meet secretly in the loft of an old barn to talk about the attacks they are being subjected to nightly. Men have been using an animal sedative to knock out entire families so they can then rape their women and children. One of their victims is a 3 year old child. They wake up sore and sick from the drug with rope burns on their wrists and ankles, wondering what had happened to them. 

At first the leaders of the community (all men) tell them they must be imagining it, or it could be they're being punished for their sins, but eventually there is too much evidence to ignore and the police are called. As the rest of the men raise bail money to get the perpetrators released, the women meet to decide what their response will be. Will they do nothing, stay and fight, or leave the community? Pros and cons of each option are weighed with careful consideration of their duty to their children and to God. Forgiveness, what it means and how to do it, is a major factor in their deliberations. They believe that if they don't forgive they will not be forgiven, and will risk losing their place in Heaven.

Back stories come out in their conversations, and some of them are hard to hear. Maybe like me you'll get so angry you want the women to exact a vicious vengeance, or maybe you'll be compassionate and graciously want healing for both victims and offenders. Either way, their story - knowing these crimes really happened to real women and children - will break your heart.

It does conclude on a hopeful note, but only in the book. The real story is more grim. Though the women were offered state counseling, the leaders refused it saying it wasn't needed since they were asleep while being raped. The rapists went to prison, but one article I read said they still claim their innocence, and that even with them out of the community, attacks continued. You can read more of the story here.  

This is a hard one to read - for the subject matter not the writing - but it is worth it. I'll be thinking about it for a long, long time.