The Stain by Rikki Ducornet

The provocative, spellbinding debut novel, set in a village in the Loire Valley in the late 19th century, by prolific worldbuilder Rikki Ducornet. In The Stain, Rikki Ducornet tells the story of a young girl named Charlotte, branded with a furry birthmark in the shape of a dancing hare, regarded as the mark of Satan. "Sadistic nuns, scatology, butchered animals, monkish rapists, and Satan" (Kirkus), as well as the village exorcist, inhabit this bawdy tale of perversion, power, possession, and the rape of innocence. Ducornet weaves an intricate design of fantasy and reality, at once surreal, hilarious, and terrifying.