The Water Cure: A Novel

Is this a feminist or antifeminist novel? Such is the mastery of the author that one is left to ponder the ideas in this book long after finishing it. Three daughters are living on an island with their parents because the rest of the world is dangerous for women. Or is the island itself the place of danger? The parents make their children submit to torture to toughen them up for the hazards they must face. One of the tortures has the girls submerged underwater to the point of drowning.

Their father is the only man the girls have ever seen. After he disappears, two men arrive under mysterious circumstances. It is inevitable that the middle daughter is captivated by one of the men.

This book is interesting on so many levels: unrequited love, murder, abandonment, and the unshakeable bond of sisterhood. Is the outside world really more dangerous than the way they have been living? And is the island truly inaccessible? This book is interesting and thought-provoking.