Salzman's writing is precise and simple, as befits his topic, and the book accomplishes the difficult task of making the decision to become a cloistered nun in the modern world sensible. Its best scenes are those inside the monastery, showing the interactions between the sisters. Who would imagine, for example, that nuns might squabble over high-fiber cereal and how to rearrange things in the refrigerator to make room for three cartons of juice? Graceful and ultimately wrenching, Salzman's book deals in a lovely, thought-provoking way with the conundrum of faith in the modern world--and on a deeper level, with the absolute mystery of belief at any point in time.