A quite wonderful book about a grisly and difficult subject: female genital mutilation. Walker attempts to be quite evenhanded and succeeds admirably, considering how horrific she most likely finds this practice. Because it has spiritual as well as social significance in many cultures (mostly in Africa), she does attempt to present that side of things. However, it becomes quite clear that the subjugation of women and the supremacy of men is the primary motive behind the practice, and that no spiritual justification can excuse it.

The story is told from the point of view of several narrators. Although this has the desirable effect of giving us many different perspectives on the same events, it also makes the book a bit choppy and hard to engage with. On the other hand, it may well be that Walker intended to provide a bit of distance from the story being told, so as to focus our attention on the nature of the awful deeds that were done to defenseless little girls. One interesting aspect of the novel is that, while most genital mutilation is performed on girls who either are not allowed to object or not of an age to give informed consent (most often both), the protagonist of this book voluntarily undertakes to have the procedure as an adult. This adds an extra frisson of moral uncertainty that makes the book all the more fascinating.

All in all, a highly recommended book (though not for the weak of heart), though I think it could have been even more effective if the structure did not lend itself quite so thoroughly to emotional distancing from the characters, which lends to the writing more the feel of a polemic and less of the story of real people to whom we are expected to feel akin, and whose suffering can therefore become our own.