Yes, the women agree they must follow their Bible, but wait, someone notes, the Bible has been interpreted for them by the very men who raped them, meaning they may not be able to trust it. We see point and counterpoint over and over in this novella. Women Talking reads like a philosophy text, or a court reporter’s notes.
Thus, the perpetrators are out of the community for just two days. But now he’s rallied the rest of the men in the community to raise bail money so the rapists can return, giving the victims a chance to ask for forgiveness, a requirement to enter heaven. To protect the men, the community preacher had the men arrested so they would be “safe” in jail in the city. For example, after one woman learned her three-year-old daughter was sick with an STD after being raped, she tried to kill the eight accused with a scythe. Much of the debate is how to save their children and still follow the rules of their faith so they may enter heaven. At the meeting, August diligently takes notes in English (the women speak “low-German”), adding translation notes or asides to explain something out of context, or even reminders for himself when a debate point sparks a memory. After his mother dies, and long after his father disappeared, August is prompted to return to Molotschna in lieu of the suicide he’s planned.
Although he grew up in Molotschna, August’s family was excommunicated when he was twelve, so they moved to England and lived a modern life, with planes, cars, college, etc. One of the more independent women asks August Epp to take notes of their meeting. Because the women cannot read nor write, they talk through their options - to do nothing, stay and fight, or leave.
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