Guineveres

Deft and lovely…The perfect weight in all ways. It''s suitable for a vacation and you can describe it in one inviting line but then it keeps unfolding and deepening taking unexpected turns. —TheNew York Times Book ReviewTo four girls who have nothing their friendship is everything: they are each other''s confidants teachers and family. The girls are all named Guinevere—Vere Gwen Ginny and Win—and it is the surprise of finding another Guinevere in their midst that first brings them together. They come to The Sisters of the Supreme Adoration convent by different paths delivered by their families each with her own complicated heartbreaking story that she safeguards. Gwen is all Hollywood glamour and swagger; Ginny is a budding artiste with a sentiment to match; Win''s tough bravado isn''t even skin deep; and Vere is the only one who seems to be a believer trying to hold onto her faith that her mother will one day return for her. However the girls are more than the sum of their parts and together they form the all powerful and confident The Guineveres bound by the extraordinary coincidence of their names and girded against the indignities of their plain sequestered lives.The nuns who raise them teach the Guineveres that faith is about waiting: waiting for the mail for weekly wash day for a miracle or for the day they turn eighteen and are allowed to leave the convent. But the Guineveres grow tired of waiting. And so when four comatose soldiers from the War looming outside arrive at the convent the girls realize that these men may hold their ticket out prose shot through with beauty Sarah Domet weaves together the Guineveres'' past present and future as well as the stories of the female saints they were raised on to capture the wonder and tumult of girlhood and the magical thinking of young women as they cross over to adulthood.