mennonite women

"For the past two years women and girls in a Mennonite colony have been repeatedly violated in the night by 'demons' coming to punish them for their sins. Now the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community. Determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm, the women meet while the men of the colony are off in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists and bring them home. These women---all illiterate, unable even to speak the language of the country they live in--must choose: Stay in the only world they've ever known, or dare to escape?"--OCLC.

"Carla Funk is a teenager with her hands on the church piano keys and her feet edging ever closer to the flames. Coming of age in a remote and forested valley--a place rich in Mennonites, loggers, and dutiful wives who submit to their husbands--she knows her destiny is to marry, have babies, and join the church ladies' sewing circle. But she feels an increasing urge to push the limits of her religion and the small town that cannot contain her desires for much longer"--From the publisher's web site.

One evening, eight Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For the past two years, each of these women, and more than a hundred other girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm. While the men of the colony are off in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists and bring them home, these women, all illiterate, without any knowledge of the world outside their community and unable even to speak the language of the country they live in, have very little time to make a choice: Should they stay in the only world they've ever known or should they dare to escape?.