The book opens with a massacre in a local convent in the town. The men in the town had decided they'd had enough of the women that were living in the convent. Note that the convent was in disuse and various women were occupying it.
The rest of the book describes the women who live in the convent and their lives prior to staying at the convent. All of this then leads to the final scenes of the massacre.
This was a hard book to read - not because of the massacre, but because it was very difficult to follow the thread of the story line for the first quarter of the book. Once I got past that point it was much easier to follow.
I liked this book despite the problems with following the story line because each of the stories about the women were so unique and detailed. For this reason I would recommend the book.
Rating: 6 / 10
ISBN: 0679433740
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Edition: 1st Edition