It is the sense of place that made this novel a stand-out for me. Five Anglican nuns are sent to a remote area in the Himalayas to found a dispensary and school for the local Indians. They take over a windy, hillside palace, recently deserted for an untold reason by a group of monks. The wind, and the 'Englishman-turned-native', Mr Dean, seems to spook the women, and they start behaving out of character. In some ways this is a good thing - shaking off their colonial prejudices - but also bad, because they each go a little mad in their own way. I really enjoyed this. It's a little bit spooky and weird, and shocking and funny, and wasn't at all what I was expecting. Now I need to decide whether to watch the film. Highly recommended.