The Pull of the Stars
By Emma Donoghue
HarperCollins
How did Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue pull this off? She’s written a book about the 1918 flu pandemic that gets published right in the midst of the 2020 covid-19 pandemic. Is she psychic? Or was it just very fortunate timing?
However she managed it, The Pull of the Stars appears with impeccable timing. There are innumerable parallels between the 1918 pandemic and the world we’re living in today, which makes this novel extremely relevant.
It’s the story of Julia Power, a nurse midwife in Dublin who works in a maternity ward for women with the flu. Nurse Power is immune herself, having already had the deadly disease.
The fast-paced stories of women giving birth would have been enough to keep me captivated with this novel, let alone the historic parallels. I’ve always loved a good birth story and this book is full of them. Prepare yourself – they don’t all have happy endings.
Power has a brother, Tim, just home from the First World War, and clearly suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Another character, a female doctor named Kathleen Lynn, is based on a real person who was an Irish independence supporter who later got elected. Bridie Sweeney is a young volunteer who is helping Julia in the ward and who grew up in a care home.
I absolutely adored this book, powering through it over two late nights. It’s a page-turner at the same time as being thoughtful, well-researched historical fiction at the same time as being extremely relevant to our covid times. Donoghue’s writing is the type you don’t even notice you’re reading, because you’re so caught up in the storyline. It’s that smooth.
Author Donoghue is best known for her 2010 novel Room, which became an Oscar-nominated and blockbuster movie about a young boy and his mother who were being held captive in a small room. Donoghue has been a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes. The Pull of the Stars is on the Scotiabank Giller Prize long list for 2020.
Donoghue will be appearing at this year’s Vancouver Writer’s Fest on October 27.
Comments