Reading this I felt like I was transported to a different time and place: A nunnery in the 12th century. The language is beautiful, expansive. There was a lot of death in this story, as can be expected in a vived portrait of medieval times, but somehow it didn't bother me, it was sad but matter-of-fact. This spans the life of the abbess/mother superior named Marie. She had visions and was a force of nature, but as a human, was not perfectly holy.
I didn't understand the choice to not capitalize God, even though Marie believed in God. There were three times it was capitalized near the end of the book, but all the other times it was uncapitalized. Weird choice, and yet I still give the book 5 stars.