'Come Monday morning after breakfast, silence will commence...until the following Saturday morning. That gives you five full days of contemplation and prayer...As usual, leaving the Sister Chapel and its grounds is forbidden and, of course, Sutherland Square is expressly out of bounds.' Such are the rules of the annual Retreat imposed on the teenage boarders at St Martin's convent school in Dublin 2. But for some of them, these rules are made to be broken. Kitty, Mary, Bernadette, Bridie and Treasa are five girls from very different backgrounds, united by their need to break out from the often cruel constraints of convent life - and by an experience too awful to talk about until they are adults. Poignant, compelling and humorous, RETREAT is an unforgettable read about friendship, support and innocence lost.