Point of View

The novel is narrated in the third-person past with a point-of-view focus on Immanuelle. Even the prologue, which focuses mostly on Martha as she delivers Miriam’s child, does not enter into the internal thoughts or feelings of either woman: “She was born breech, in the deep of night. The midwife, Martha, had to seize her by the ankles and drag her from the womb. She slipped out easy, dropped limp into Martha’s arms, and lay still as stone” (1). Here, the narrator introduces us to Immanuelle in the very first sentences of the novel, though we do not yet know who Immanuelle is or why she is of import to the story as a whole.

After the prologue, the narrator tells us of Immanuelle’s life as a 17-year-old girl living in Bethel. We venture into her thoughts and feelings, and we learn the...