Obedience

Obedience is a quiet, simple book which starts slowly, but after a few chapters I was hooked, because beneath the stillness of the convent in which the tale is set bristles an explosive revelation. It is not giving too much away to say what this revelation is, as it forms the entire basis of the novel: a nun who has lived in a French convent for 70 years turns out to have had a sexual relationship with a Nazi soldier during World War Two. The consequences of the affair had repercussions not just on the nun, Sister Bernard, but on the convent and the community beyond.

It is the way in which Yallop gradually reveals Sister Bernard's backstory that makes this novel so compelling. Switching between her present - which sees she and the other two remaining nuns in the convent packing to finally leave it - and the actions of her past, we are fed the story in small portions, only building up a full picture as the story reaches its conclusion.

The main character is an intriguing proposition. I was torn between thinking she was unrealistic - what nun would ever contemplate an affair, yet alone allow it to happen? - and frustratingly fascinating. Yallop never quite lets us into Bernard's soul, instead we view her as other characters in the story do, and come up with the same questions: Is she a bit simple? Or naïve? Or was she just blinded by desire and the infatuation of first love?

Yallop lets us make our own minds up on that one, and, indeed, on the crucial decisions made by all the characters in the book which impact on Bernard's desperately sad life. This intelligent characterisation and stealthy manner of storytelling only served to make me want to read all the more from an author who knows exactly how to get under your skin.