There's an extra layer of this story added if you know the author's family escaped Brussels during the Nazi Occupation, and I felt I understood this story so much more with that context. This is one of the only stories I've read with little to no input from a man, and it was so refreshing.

This story is about the harrowing journey 40 women take after a freak event allows them to escape the cell they've lived in for many years, but it's also a portrait of one girl, the youngest, who is desperately trying to understand the world they talk about and the rituals they miss.

We don't get answers in this story, and I desperately wanted something, which was the only part that let this down a little for me. However this story was so vividly told, so beautifully written and so haunting that I hope it never gets lost to time.