I just finished this novel and it was wonderful. It started a little slow for me but once I got through it it will stick with me for awhile.
Its sad for me to think of the women of previous generations (and now) who have been abused and had to deal with it, but especially in the past when abuse or rape wasn't considered real. In the eventual article it was used with quotation marks. Its meant to be left up to the reader to decide what happened, what was real and what wasn't, and in the small town, what was gossip. It was very haunting and I would recommend it to anyone who is a Shreve fan or looking for a good book about a thought provoking subject.