The Wonder

by Emma Donoghue

Paperback, 2017

Status

Available

Collection

Publication

HarperCollins Publishers (2017), 304 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. HTML:In this masterpiece by Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room, an English nurse is brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle â?? a girl said to have survived without food for month â?? and soon finds herself fighting to save the child's life. Tourists flock to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, who believes herself to be living off manna from heaven, and a journalist is sent to cover the sensation. Lib Wright, a veteran of Florence Nightingale's Crimean campaign, is hired to keep watch over the girl. Written with all the propulsive tension that made Room a huge bestseller, The Wonder works beautifully on many levels â?? a tale of two strangers who transform each other's lives, a powerful psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil. Acclaim for The Wonder: "Deliciously gothic.... Dark and vivid, with complicated characters, this is a novel that lodges itself deep" (USA Today, 3/4 stars) "Heartbreaking and transcendent"(New York Times) "A fable as lean and discomfiting as Anna's dwindling body.... Donoghue keeps us riveted" (Chicago Tribune) "Donoghue poses powerful questions about faith and belief" (News… (more)

Media reviews

Historical fiction can give us rare insight into lives we might never have imagined, beliefs we could not otherwise have understood. The believability is what engages us, and this requires that a story retain some of the mysterious quality of real life: the inexplicable suffering, the ineffability.
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The Wonder wanders away from this and into the realm of happy-ever-after. In this it is not so wondrous after all.
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3 more
After making my way through several recent novels written in tiresome hey-look-at-me prose (Emma Cline’s “The Girls” comes to mind), “The Wonder” arrived as a welcome relief. Donoghue’s prose is as sturdy and serviceable as a good pair of brogans, but never nondescript...After making my
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way through several recent novels written in tiresome hey-look-at-me prose (Emma Cline’s “The Girls” comes to mind), “The Wonder” arrived as a welcome relief. Donoghue’s prose is as sturdy and serviceable as a good pair of brogans, but never nondescript..Even less palatable is the distracting romance Donoghue loads onto the second half of her tale..These are flaws, but not fatal ones. For the most part, “The Wonder” is a fine, fact-based historical novel, an old-school page turner (I use the phrase without shame).
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Emma Donoghue leaves little to Wonder about in the plot of her latest novel..Clever and seductive as its premise is, the novel is ultimately marred by the explanatory overwriting that has sometimes affected Donoghue’s work in the past. Donoghue’s prolificacy extends not just to books (she’s
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written nearly 20) but to the page: cudgel-like repetition is too often used as a means of emphasis. That, combined with too many ponderous nudges and winks, means there’s little we don’t see coming from early on. Plot-wise, there’s little to wonder about in The Wonder.
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Part mystery, part supernatural thriller, part meditation on religious fundamentalism, Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder serves questions in triplicate about this very matter, through the mind and body of an 11-year-old Catholic girl who does not eat and yet continues to
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live.....The Wonder rides high on the acclaim of Room – which explored the lives of Jack and his mother as they lived in captivity in a shed belonging to the man who raped and kidnapped her as a teenager – and shares in its many themes. In Room, the pair lives in a claustrophobic physical space, but also a spiritual one that at times makes it a difficult read..The Wonder rides high on the acclaim of Room – which explored the lives of Jack and his mother as they lived in captivity in a shed belonging to the man who raped and kidnapped her as a teenager – and shares in its many themes. In Room, the pair lives in a claustrophobic physical space, but also a spiritual one that at times makes it a difficult read
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User reviews

LibraryThing member vancouverdeb
The Wonder by Emma Donoghue is a fascinating story about eleven year old Anna O'Donnell. In a small Irish village of the 1850's, Anna has apparently thrived without food for several months. Is Anna a miracle of the Catholic Faith? Or is someone slipping her food? Lib Wright, an English nurse who
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trained under Florence Nightingale , is hired to keep watch over young Anna. Is Anna a fraud or not?

A complex and intriguing novel that kept me enthralled . The Wonder is on the 2016 Giller Shortlist. This is a great page- turner that I think will have a broad appeal. I much preferred it to Room by the same author.

Heartily recommended! 4.25 stars
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LibraryThing member Cariola
It's the 1860s and Lib Wright, a nurse trained by Miss Nightingale herself, is about to begin a new assignment in a small Irish town.She is surprised to learn that her charge, 11-year old Anna O'Donnell, is reputed to be a miracle: she hasn't eaten for four months yet seems to be in glowing health.
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Lib's task, shared with another nurse, a nun named Sister Michael, is to monitor the girl 24/7 to ascertain whether or not she has eaten so much as a morsel. A non-Catholic (and in fact perhaps not a believer of any denomination), Lib is irritated by what she deems ignorance and superstition. Of course someone has been sneaking food to Anna, Lib assumes, and she is determined to find out how it has been done. In two weeks' time, she and Sister Michael are to report their findings to the town committee that hired them. Is Anna a saint or a fraud?

Lib is determined to maintain a professional detachment, tracking vital statistics in her notebook and scouring the girl's room for hidden crumbs. Yet she is drawn to Anna, a sweet and intelligent girl whose health suddenly starts fading. Her seemingly blind acceptance of her fate as "God's will" maddens Lib, but neither Anna's parents not her priest and not even her doctor will urge her to take nourishment. It is William Bryant, a visiting journalist, who helps Lib to begin unraveling the mystery of Anna's fast.

What appears to be a simple story with a lot of local color becomes more complicated in author Donoghue's hands, and it is fascinating to watch Lib herself change as she sorts out the subtle clues to Anna's past. And Lib, we learn, is not without secrets of her own. I've long been a fan of Donoghue's work, and The Wonder does not disappoint. I was gripped by the story and finished the novel in just a few days.
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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
I loved this book far too much to be able to write an impartial and helpful review. Please take that under consideration.

Lib Wright trained under Florence Nightingale in the Crimea. Now, she's been hired for two weeks in rural Ireland with no details given. Arriving, she finds out that her patient
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will be a young girl, the daughter of a farmer. Her family and priest claim she has eaten nothing for four months and is yet healthy. Lib, along with another nurse, a nun, will be watching her to verify that she is indeed not eating. They are to function as guards and witnesses. Lib finds Anna, and the entire family, to be a strange and religious child. Neither Irish nor Catholic, Lib is confused about much of the behavior surrounding her.

This was just such a meaty, atmospheric story. Lib's a prickly, cold woman, but she won me over and there is just so much to think about in this book; the role of religion in Ireland's history, the power of the Catholic church in Ireland, what living through the famine did to people and the question of what to do when doing your job is hurting someone. Emma Donoghue researched the phenomenon she's describing here, and she certainly has a talent for evoking specific times and places.
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LibraryThing member lit_chick
What collective madness had the townspeople in its grip? "If they're concerned that a child is being allowed to kill herself, quotation mark Lib demanded, quotation mark why don't they stormed the cabin?" (261)

In mid-nineteenth century rural Ireland, eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell has been
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fasting for four months, existing only on what she calls “manna from heaven.” Chants of “miracle” have reached fever pitch now – tourists flock to the small village in droves, hoping to glimpse first-hand this tiny miracle of God. An international journalist has been sent to cover the spectacle, too. It is into this madness that Lib, a Nightingale-trained English nurse arrives – having been hired to watch over Anna, day and night – to determine whether the child is fraud. But as Lib’s young charge wastes away, she cannot but feel compelled to get to the root of why the child may actually be the victim of murder in slow motion. Most distressingly, what of the child’s parents, and of the village doctor and priest? – so imprisoned by their Catholicism that they hope and pray the child is a miracle, or a saint – but fail to encourage her to eat?

Donoghue writes beautifully – The Wonder is cast in that same spare, compelling prose that made Room such a success. Tense and multi-layered, she asks big questions here about faith and about human nature, while at the same time telling a simple, uncomplicated story of two strangers who will transform each other’s lives. Highly recommended.

"None are so blind as those who will not see." (287)
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LibraryThing member debann6354
This book is a wonder. (Couldn't help the pun) I was so immersed in the main characters and the story. Normally do not enjoy books when religion is a substantial part of the narrative. However Emma Donoghue is such a deft writer it didn't matter. Anna and Lib are characters that will gladly stay
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with me for a long time. This book was not like any other book I've read, at least that I can remember and, for me, that is a big plus.
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LibraryThing member sturlington
An English nurse goes to rural Ireland, hired to watch over a "miracle" girl who seems to live without eating, but the nurse suspects a hoax.

It took me a good long while to get into this book, but in the end, I found it to be very moving. The characters were well drawn. At first, I really didn't
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like Lib, the nurse, nor was I supposed to. She was snobbish, judgmental, and dismissive. But as we spend more time with her, we come to see her also as lonely, guarded, a victim of tragedy, and in the end, a person who shows bravery when faced with a difficult moral choice. This story comes down very hard on religion, which wasn't an issue for me. Although I was sometimes a bit shocked by Lib's attitude toward the lower class Catholic Irish she found herself living in close quarters with, I tend to agree with the ultimate stance the novel takes on how harmful religion can be. As always with Donoghue's historical novels, this was well-researched and strongly evoked its time and place, while adding just a veneer of the nineteenth-century gothic.
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LibraryThing member ozzer
Emma Donoghue is best known for extracting drama from confined spaces occupied by one child and one adult. THE WONDER is just such a novel. The setting is mainly in a small dark room in a peasant farm cabin in rural Ireland just following the devastating 18th Century potato famine. The adult
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character is Lib Wright and the child is Anna O’Donnell. Lib is a former Nightingale nurse, just returned from the Crimean War. She is worldly and self-satisfied, embracing modern science while being intensely skeptical of religion. She sees the rural Irish as particularly benighted. Anna, one the other hand, is a bright 11-year-old who guilelessly accepts the magical thinking that surrounds the extant Irish version of religious piety. She uses holy cards to mark passages in the bible and prays daily for her recently deceased brother’s early release from purgatory.

Anna is something of a local celebrity and a candidate for beatification because she has been fasting for months with no visible effects. Lib has been hired by a committee of local leaders to keep an eye on Anna, just to make sure that this is not a hoax. Lib is confident that it is indeed a hoax and that she will be able to demonstrate that quickly.

By introducing wider issues, Donoghue opens this rather simple tale, based on historical fact, into something much more complex and interesting. She exploits the differences between English sophistication and Irish poverty/superstition as metaphor for the tensions that exist between science and religion. Family and the Church are used to explore the excesses and damages that can result when faith becomes superstition. Lib’s early impression of Anna and Ireland is as “a great liar in a country famous for them.” Irish Catholicism is portrayed as misogynistic and cruel, while the rural Irish are seen as abusive and superstitious.

Although intended as a thriller, the plot moves at a snail’s pace until the later pages when Lib begins to suspect that Anna’s fast has morphed into actual starvation and accepts some of he blame. “Could the Watch be having the perverse effect of turning the O’Donnells’ lie to truth?” This, along with revelations regarding Anna’s real motivations for the fast, ramp up the tension, but its final resolution seems too heroic, contrived and unsatisfying.

Donoghue succeeds in developing two believable and nuanced characters in Lib and Anna. However, the other characters are stereotypes. The Irish Times correspondent, William Byrne, is a dashing hero figure. Dr. McBrearty is a fool who wonders if Anna’s “metabolism (might) not be altering to one less combustive, more of a reptilian than mammalian nature?” The local priest is fixated on sin and penance. Sister Michael, Lib’s colleague in the observation, is a dullard, who is definitely not unbiased. Anna’s mother is a suspicious, overbearing and manipulative woman who controls her family.

Donoghue claims that she enjoys doing research for her novels and this shows in THE WONDER. Her depictions of this post-famine land, its people and customs are superb, evoking bogs, destroyed houses, women begging roadside and, of course, the ever-present smell of peat. Her descriptions of a poor 19th Century farmstead and its inhabitants are likewise excellent, as are the various religious objects in the home and the devotional habits of the family.
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LibraryThing member icolford
In The Wonder Emma Donoghue tells the story of Anna O’Donnell, an eleven-year-old girl living in rural poverty in 1850s Ireland who suddenly stops eating but appears nonetheless to flourish. By the time a committee of local elders decides to act, the girl has been fasting for four months and is
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attracting the attention of people who attribute her survival to divine intervention. Some want her declared a miracle. Others are skeptical and suspect she’s faking. But before making any pronouncements, the committee wants to get to the bottom of the O’Donnell family’s claims. Enter Lib Wright, an English nurse of impeccable pedigree (having worked under Florence Nightingale in the Crimea), who is brought in by the committee to “watch” the child to ensure she’s not somehow being provided with nourishment on the sly. Lib, who has long since placed her faith in science rather than god, embarks upon her two-week assignment convinced that Anna is a fraud and that the O’Donnell family is somehow profiting from the girl’s supposed achievement. But as the days pass and she sees no evidence that Anna is being fed, and the child impresses her with her steady devotion, her inquiring intelligence, and her mystical air of innocence, Lib finds herself at a loss to explain what’s going on and also growing attached to Anna ways that she knows are not healthy. To reveal more of the plot would be unfair. Suffice it to say that the discoveries Lib makes are as much about herself as they are about Anna. Emma Donoghue writes convincingly from the perspective of an English nurse living in the 1850s. The prose is filled with period detail, and the lush Irish countryside is skilfully evoked. In many respects Lib is a fish out of water, an Englishwoman dropped into rural Ireland in the years immediately following the Great Famine, whose eyes are opened again and again to the suffering the Irish endured and the indomitable spirit of a downtrodden but proud people. Donoghue’s novel is fiction, but the idea for it comes from tales of numerous “fasting girls” whose exploits were widely reported in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere from the 1600s to the 1800s. From these seeds Emma Donoghue has fashioned an absorbing story filled with affecting drama and memorable characters. A feast for the heart and the mind.
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LibraryThing member indygo88
In 1850's rural Ireland, 11-year-old Anna begins to attract both local & national attention after not eating for several months, yet does not exhibit any ill effects from this supposed fasting. Lib, an English nurse, is brought in to observe Anna for a 2-week period to determine if the girl is
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indeed fasting or if the whole thing is a sham.

The story begs the reader to ask the following questions: Is Anna really receiving sustenance from God? Is she somehow sneaking small bits of food when no one is looking? Is her family involved in trying to pull off some sort of fraud? Or is something else entirely going on?

I thought this was a well-written story that did a good job of exploring and tying together religion, science, & family dynamics, all with a mysterious aura. However, the story moved a little too slow for my taste. Though it was a fairly quick read, the first half of the book dragged. I enjoy Donoghue's writing, but this wasn't my favorite of hers.
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LibraryThing member LibraryCin
In the mid-1800s, Lib is a nurse from England who has come to Ireland to keep watch, for two weeks, over a young girl who has not eaten in four months. Lib and another nurse, a nun, will swap shifts to always watch to see if the girl can really subsist on nothing. Is it a miracle? Lib is doubtful
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and expects she’ll be able to prove the hoax in short order.

I wondered part-way through if there had been people who really thought they could live without eating, and in fact, there were. Donoghue’s book was not based on one specific person, but on multiple people. Some did have people watch them at all times, as well. Donoghue’s author’s note tells us that each real-life instance had different outcomes.

I might have rated it higher, but the story was pretty slow-going. For the last third of the book or so, I thought it picked up quite a bit, but decided that I’d keep my rating at “ok”, which is where it fell for me for most of the book. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at the crazy religious people.
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LibraryThing member BookConcierge
Digital audiobook performed by Kate Lock.

In August 1859 a report of an 11-year-old girl who has lived without any food for four months is causing quite the sensation. Is she a fraud? Could she be a “living wonder”? The town physician proposes a scientific watch, employing two nurses unknown to
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the town to carefully watch over the child for a period of two weeks. One is a nun, Sister Michael; the other a nurse trained by Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth “Lib” Wright, a 25-year-old widow.

Lib is the narrator and she struggles to understand the family, the town, the physician, the priest, and most importantly, Anna, the child she’s been hired to watch. Lib is English, and an Anglican. She’s unfamiliar with the beliefs of the Catholic Church and finds it difficult to understand the Irish brogue at times. She views the family, and villagers, as ignorant and superstitious. But she sets out to methodically observe and record Anna’s condition and, in order to do so, she also tries to gain the girl’s confidence. Her medical training tells her that it is not possible for anyone to live without any sustenance. And as the week passes, she notes the child’s deterioration. As the nurse’s eyes are opened to what has happened in the family and how Anna perceives her fast in terms of her religious beliefs, Lib’s personal mission changes from one of pure scientific observation to trying to save this girl’s life.

Her eyes are opened initially by a journalist who has traveled to the village to report on the phenomenon, or more accurately to unveil the fraud. William Byrne befriends Mrs. Wright and finagles a way to casually meet Anna, “just to see for myself.” And what he sees is a child starving to death. The question is “why?”

And the only person who can answer that is Anna (and perhaps her mother). Anna may not have much education, but she is clearly intelligent and curious and learns quickly. She seems to be a quick judge of character and I really enjoyed the conversations between Lib and Anna. But Anna is so steadfast in her faith, in her beliefs in the redemptive power of prayer, that getting to the underlying truth of what led her to undertake this fast is difficult at best. I was as stunned as Lib to discover Anna’s secret, and furious with her mother and her priest for colluding to keep it a secret.

In the course of the novel Donoghue explores issues of faith, belief, guilt, abuse, family dysfunction, social mores and the role of the Roman Catholic Church and her priests in protecting (or not) children. I had to remind myself a few times that the time frame of the work is the mid-19th century. Definitely a thought-provoking book, and I think it would result in a great book-group discussion.

Kate Lock does a fine job of voicing the audiobook, however …. Her Irish brogue is so thick in places that I had difficulty making out the dialogue. Thank heavens I had the text available. Despite Lock’s skill as a voice artist, I do not recommend listening to this book.
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LibraryThing member maryreinert
In the 1800's, an English nurse, Lib Wright, is sent to a remote Irish village to observe an eleven-year-old girl, Anna O'Donnell who has not taken any food for weeks and is said to be living off manna from heaven. Lib has been trained under Florence Nightengale during the Crimean War and is very
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cynical regarding this entire affair. She and another observer, Sister Michael, an Irish nun, are not to leave the child unattended for one moment. Tourist have begun to come to the village to see this miracle child who is fully supported by her parents.

Lib also encounters a young man, William Byrne, who is a reporter for an Irish paper who is equally suspicious. After a few days, Lib soon realizes that the girl is starving herself to death. Extremely devout, Anna is praying constantly for her brother who has recently died. A strange and eerie situation soon becomes clear to Anna regarding the relationship between the siblings. Eventually Lib with the help of William confront Anna to the ruse and convince her that she can be saved.

The ending of the book shows the three of them arriving in Australia. Good read.
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LibraryThing member hollysing
4.5 stars

Libby, a widow at twenty-five and a nurse trained under Florence Nightingale, arrives at a small village in Ireland. Her job is to observe her patient, Anna, a child who has refused food since her eleventh birthday, four months ago. Not emaciated, Anna seems in full control of her
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faculties and subsists merely on water. According to her family, Anna is thriving because of the Almighty's hand.

The story is absorbing, intriguing, and suspenseful. Lib is determined to do her job and exasperated by her inability to solve the mystery. Donahue masterfully writes Lib's suspicions, setbacks, and diligence. Cultural superstitions and resentment from Anna's family haunt Libby. Is the whole scenario balderdash or a miracle?

Supremely written, imaginative, and evocative, Emma Donahue's new release is highly recommended.

ARC supplied by the publisher and NetGalley for my unbiased review.
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LibraryThing member MaureenCean
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC. I must say Ms. Donoghue's range is quite broad. I was about to write that this novel could not for instance could be any further distant from Room, but I stop myself just short when considering the lengths a woman will go to to keep a child safe. I enjoyed this
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better than Room as well, more my style. It tipped the scales back in the author's favor as well, I recently tried listening to Frog Music and abandoned it rather quickly. I might try it again in print, it really was the narration that killed it.

It's odd how sometimes life's events and the books we read intertwine. Being the lapsed Catholic that I am, at a funeral today I was distracted by the question of why we must pray for those that have already passed. I had a lesson at lunch with the priest on the finer points of purgatory, that was interesting and relevant to the reading. He was very old school.

The book is a bit predictable, some of Lib's self-berating borders on annoying, but the story moves along at a good enough pace to overcome these small faults. I'll be going back now and reviewing her other works to see if something else appeals to me. I recommend this one.
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LibraryThing member Romonko
This book has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize this year. This is a strange tale set in mid-19th century Ireland. Lib Wright is an English nurse who has been sent to a small Irish village to be an observer for a young 11 year old girl who has claimed to not have eaten any food for four months.
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Lib is a Crimean nurse who had trained under Miss Nigthingale. She hopes to prove that Anna O'Donnell and her family are fraudsters, as no human can live without sustenance for four months. When she arrives she finds a very devout little girl who, though frail, appears fairly healthy and functional. The story is set over two weeks, and during that time, Lib and Anna form a bond that changes both of their lives forever. I found that the story was fascinating and Ms. Donaghue writes psychological suspense like no other, but I found the book had a slow start, but it definitely picked up in the last half. A strange tale, but handled with aplomb by Ms. Donaghue.
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LibraryThing member akblanchard
Nineteenth-century rural Ireland is saturated with religious ritual and folklore, but even in this superstitious milieu, Anna, the "wonder" of the title, is something of an oddity. Her parents claim that for the past four months the eleven-year-old "fasting girl" has survived on nothing but "manna"
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from heaven, yet she seems to be in reasonably good health. No-nonsense, science-minded nurse Lib is brought in to guard Anna and make sure she is not surreptitiously taking in regular food. When Lib sees that Anna's refusal to eat has taken an ominous turn, the nurse takes drastic action.

Emma Donoghue has written another page-turner (after her best-seller Room) that is filled with period detail and genuine insight into her characters. I suspect (Donoghue does not state this) that the novel is based on the case of the celebrated Welsh "fasting girl" Sarah Jacob (1857-1869).

Highly recommended as one of the best books I've read in 2016.
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LibraryThing member dianeham
I liked reading this book and it held my attention. However, I am disappointed that there wasn't one Irish person who rose above the local mythology. In this novel the Irish are portrayed as backward and ignorant people who need the enlightenment of the English nurse. The only Irishman who isn't
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ignorant is of course the one from Dublin. Sorry too much stereotyping here for my taste.
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LibraryThing member JanJanFreeman
Emma Donoghue stuns again! I had read Room in the past and made the mistake of thinking this book might be along the same lines. It was not. The only way that they compare is that the main character has had an adverse experience before the novel begins, the focus on the strength of a child, and an
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underlying theme on whether or not a certain set of parents "deserve" their children.

Lib is a nurse assigned to observe Anna, an eleven year old who is gaining notoriety for sustaining without food for months. The last thing she ate was a communion host at church a few months ago and claims to have been living on "manna from heaven". Lib is an English atheist without a family who now has to work for a very Catholic family and her colleague is a nun. She is determined to have this assignment end early by finding the truth behind this obvious lie from a child. As more and more shifts go by, she begins to wonder if the child is even lying at all.

Anna is a young child who is very strong in her faith (she prays the same prayer 33 times a day, along with the rosary at night) yet is losing strength in her body. She does not complain, instead believes the fast from food is worth the struggle if it means her dear brother Pat can be saved from purgatory. "Poor Pat" died quickly from a stomach illness months before the novel begins. The illness was so swift that he was not able to confess his sins before his death and therefore believed to be stuck in purgatory until his family prays enough for him to be released into heaven. Can Anna's love for her brother keep her strength going long enough for Pat's release?

Anna's parents, the O'Donnells, are grieving the loss of their son, yet trying their best to maintain their farm and handle Anna's new fame. People from far distances stop by their humble home just to catch a glimpse of her. Mrs. O'Donnell especially seems to enjoy the visitors and Mr. O'Donnell prefers to keep working rather than entertaining. But when Lib insists that the visitors be turned away for the duration of this observation, Mrs. O'Donnell makes her disapproval very clear.

All of these factor into why I really enjoyed this novel. The culmination was very effective, as was the character development of Lib in particular. There were a few surprising pieces of the novel that add depth to the characters. There were a few characters that did not turn out to be who I was expecting them to be. Emma Donoghue has a way of describing day-to-day routines in a way that is unexpectedly intriguing. Furthermore, the evolution of the daily routines disguise the change in path towards the uphill road leading to the conclusion.

Please note: a copy of this novel was generously provided via the publisher through NetGalley.
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LibraryThing member nikkinmichaels
I found THE WONDER simultaneously beguiling and tiresome. Slow and cumbersomely repetitive for much of its almost 300 pages, it nevertheless managed to hold my attention (if tenuously at times) and compel me to read on. Most fascinating is not, as the summary would have you believe, the power of
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human bonds and connections, but rather the searing and ruthless (but not explicit) commentary on the failings and dangers of blind faith.
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LibraryThing member ijustgetbored
I'm trying not to accuse Emma Donoghue of selling out, but this post-Room book lacks nearly everything that made her previous novels excellent. Trite predictability is marketable, no doubt.

The backbone of this novel is the traditional dichotomies: science versus reason, head versus heart. The novel
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chugs along sluggishly on these formulas. The landscapes of Ireland are beautifully rendered, and the post-Crimean War setting is unusual. However, these things are set dressing and cannot hide a rickety plot.

A family purports their daughter survives without food, and the town rallies to prove that this miracle is not a hoax. No-nonsense nurse Lib Wright is one of two people called to keep a watch on the girl to prove or disprove the claim. The other watcher is a nun, a curiously undeveloped character. The other characters are stock heroes and villains, indistinguishable from any other persons populating a novel with a similar premise.

The plot is maddeningly predictable, and the ending is big screen-ready. The nuances of plot and characterization that characterize Donoghue's earlier works are absent entirely. In the past, she has written novels featuring unlikable anti-heroes and done the job brilliantly: the life and soul that sustains those works is completely missing here.
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LibraryThing member Narshkite
Argh, GR ate my review. I will try to summarize this slow, meandering, gloomy, provocative and perfect book.

1) Emma Donoghue really hates the Catholic Church. Like really hates it. And she despises the concept of miracles.

2) Emma Donoghue loves and hates Ireland is roughly equal amounts. This book
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is more about Ireland than just about anything else, and I can't recall reading a better drawn character.

3) Ireland is a place where people live to hope, and then actively and inexplicably destroy all possibility of hope being fulfilled and thereby define their fate.

4) Donoghue knows the pain of bearing guilt for not saving men from their own weaknesses. I suspect she knows this is intellectually indefensible and personally inescapable.

5) People prefer faith to knowledge because it is easier, and people who prefer faith to knowledge deserve their ruin, but most often then bring others with them.

6) Love trumps ignorance.

7) Parenthood comes in many different ways.

I will fill in the blanks and recreate my review at some point, but that covers things pretty well.
ETA: I listened to the audiobook and the reader was excellent.
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LibraryThing member lostinalibrary
When a priest in 1850s rural Ireland reports to the press about a young girl who, he claims, has not eaten anything for four months, a Local Committee of prominent citizens decides to set up a 24-hour watch for two weeks to discover if the girl is a fraud or a miracle. Lib, an English nurse who
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trained under Nightingale in the Crimea is one of two women commissioned to keep the watch. She is sure that she won’t need two weeks to uncover the fraud. However, as she gets to know eleven-year-old Anna, the wonder of the title, she discovers that it is not as simple as she thought. Lib, whose faith lies in science rather than God, begins to see the girl as a victim of some hoax for money or notoriety perpetrated perhaps by her family or the priest and that Anna, who is deeply religious, honestly believes she is surviving on some supernatural food, the Biblical manna from heaven. Yet, despite the fact that Anna is never allowed a moment by herself, that no one is allowed near her except a doctor and then only when Lib is watching, Anna continues to survive, even thrive, with no more than a few teaspoonfuls of water each day.

The Wonder by author Emma Donoghue, although fictional, is based on real-life cases of women of the period who claimed not to eat and who were watched to establish the veracity of their claims. Despite this rather creepy but not terribly shocking historical basis on which she built her story, Donoghue has created an extremely intense, compelling, and well-written page-turner of a suspense novel. Lib and Anna are complex and sympathetic characters who both harbour secrets and they make the reader care about the outcome of the tale.

I did feel that her portrayal of many of the other characters was somewhat stereotypical ie the Irish peasant steeped in superstition controlled by their religion especially given that the only one who wasn’t was a journalist who had spent a great deal of time in England But, if these other characters are, as a result, less sympathetic, Donoghue also provides some historical details about the so-called potato famine of the period that are too often ignored in historical accounts that provide interesting background to the story and help at least partially to explain this behaviour. I also felt that the ending was somewhat problematic but, given the strong emotions created by the two main protagonists, it may not be the ending it seemed to demand but it is certainly an ending most readers will appreciate.

Still, despite these criticisms, I must say not only did I find The Wonder impossible to put down, I found myself rereading parts just to reexperience the rhythm of the prose. This one gets a definite high recommendation from me.

4.5

Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for the opportunityto read this book in exchange for an honest review
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LibraryThing member ecataldi
Donoghue, Emma. The Wonder. 10 CDs. unabridged. 13 hrs. Hachette Audio. ISBN 9781478911753. $30.

Donoghue (bestselling author of Room), weaves a magnificent and haunting tale of a young Irish Catholic girl fasting herself to death and a nurse determined to save her. Eleven year old Anna O'Donnell
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is purported to have eaten nothing for months; Lib Wright an English nurse, is sent over to a small Irish village to see if the rumors are true and the girl is truly subsisting on nothing. Refusing to believe, Lib is determined to end the hoax within days but she finds herself inexplicably drawn to the "living wonder." Putting her skepticism aside Lib is determined to help the girl, regardless if she is a fraud or not. There is something ominous about a young girl determined to waste away and Lib is convinced that something is amiss. This thriller starts off with a slow burn but quickly picks up speed as the relationship between Lib and Anna deepens and it becomes apparent that not everything is as it seems. The story comes alive with an impeccable narration by Kate Lock, who expertly narrates both English and Irish accents to such an extent that it's easy to get lost in the story. Another great read from a seasoned author, an absolute must listen! - Erin Cataldi, Johnson Co. Public Library, Franklin, IN
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LibraryThing member wildrequiem
This book is like the Mystery Diagnosis episode from hell.

The Wonder's dust jacket synopsis doesn't really do it justice. It's a kind of Gothic tale, set in Ireland; all rain and bleary skies and fog and religion. It deals with prejudice, religious piety, professional healthcare, internal conflicts
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from the depths of hell... and more.

Emma Donoghue is a very atmospheric writer. The tension in this story is passive and you FEEL it like a slow burn. I really hope Emma gets the chance to adapt this into a screenplay because it'd work so well as a low-budget feature. This book really reads like a script (an excellent one) because the dialogue is wonderfully constructed.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one so much - its synopsis, again, would not have led me to purchase it. I got it on a whim as my first Book of the Month.
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LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
The Wonder is Emma Donoghue's newest about a nurse (who had been trained by Florence Nightingale) hired to watch over an 11-year-old saint in the making who claims she has not eaten for 4 months. A couple of books ago I think we discussed how Donaghue's writing is a bucket of horrors, but not this
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time. There's a good exploration of early nursing, women as professionals and people as people. So far I have to say Donaghue can do no wrong.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2016

Physical description

304 p.; 9 inches

ISBN

144345379X / 9781443453790

Barcode

563

Pages

304
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