Four girls, each named Guinevere, all left by their parents at a convent, to be raised by the nuns. Brought together by their shared name, the girls bond together and over the course of a year, become inseparable, and then are broken apart. Learning about the saints, whose stories are threaded through their own lives, the girls plan for their future, when they can leave the convent (and perhaps find their families again). When four comatose soldiers, casualties of the War, arrive at the convent, all four girls will find their friendship will be tested in ways they couldn't have imagined.
I enjoyed this story, although I had a hard time placing exactly when it was supposed to be taking place (maybe World War II?).
The story is told mainly from the first-person view of one of the girls, although you get the other girls' stories throughout the book. The pace is somewhat slow, and there are periodic reflections from the main character, so it makes you wonder what happened to each of the girls. By the time I reached the ending, I couldn't have predicted the way the story would wind up, and I had a mixed reaction. It's a somewhat tragic ending, although I don't know if it really is for the main character. That might not make sense unless you read the book. I found it to be an interesting story, especially since each girl comes to the convent for different reasons. The author does a good job of making the place and characters feel very real. I found myself thinking about the movie The Magdalene Laundries (although this story is nowhere near how awful that story is), because of the way the convent is described, and because the way some of the girls see themselves, and their families.
An interesting first novel from this author.
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