Sister Carmen

In a small Moravian village, Easter brings the community together in joyful celebration of resurrection. But for young Carmen, the religious holiday offers no liberation from the strict codes that govern her life. When Brother Jonathan Fricke reveals his inappropriate passion for her during the festivities, Carmen faces the precise machinery of her cage: a man of God who weaponizes his position, a community that demands her compliance, and a past that haunts her. Carmen possesses a spirit the village cannot contain, a zest for life that refuses to be metabolized into quiet obedience. She must navigate the impossible terrain between what her community expects and what her soul demands. This is a novel about the violence of enforced piety, and one woman's refusal to let a man's desire become her destiny. Written in the late 19th century, it pulses with a quietly radical question: what happens when a woman decides she will not be governed?