Elodie travels to what is described in the blurb as deepest Africa, but read more like Morocco, to try to find out what has happened to her sister Bridie. Bridie is a nun and has been working in a town called Beb, but he's not been in contact with her order or the local bishop for months. There are chapters describing Elodie's search (she gets help from the British consul, speaks to the bishop, travels to Beb with her lover Hennning) and these are interspersed with chapters describing Elodie's relationship with Bridie as teenagers and then as adults, culminating in Bridie's decision to become a nun. Finally there are emails Elodie sends to her mother, estranged husband and children back in England.

I thought this was a great story; it was in some ways a detective story, but there was also an examination of faith and religion, discussion of the ways we repeat our parents' mistakes, and perhaps slightly too much (for me!) on Elodie's work trying to stamp out malaria. If there was a weak spot for me it was that Elodie's relationship with her children seemed superficial and I wasn't sure her romantic happy ending would work out. (Also there were quite a few typos in the text...)

Highly recommended. ( )