The Wonder

Dismal and abysmal. Fails to capture the place or the time which are both central to the plot. Doesn't manage to create characters of any depth and the hero/anti-hero has a bit of a flourishing finish but a very mediocre start and middle.Storyline has elaborate twists that leave the reader untouched, slight raise of the eyebrows but nothing that touches the inner self. SOOOOO disappointing after THE ROOM.

A skeptical nurse is charged with observing a child who claims not to have eaten in four months. When Lib is sent to Ireland, she initially thinks that 11 year old Anna’s fast is a hoax. Lib is flabbergasted by Anna’s superstitions and Catholic piousness and is determined to expose the fraud. The first 150 pages are just Lib observing Anna and getting to know her family and the local culture. And there wasn’t much happening in Anna’s little Irish hamlet other than pilgrims flocking to her, interfering in Lib’s watch.

If it hadn’t taken more than half of the book to for the momentum to really pick up, I would have given it 5 stars. By the final 50 pages, I completely was swept away. As more of Anna’s character was fleshed out, the more I liked her and sympathized with Lib’s difficult position. I was thoroughly vested in Anna’s survival, despite how frustrating her stubborn convictions were (not to mention the ignorance of other peripheral characters). The background given in the first half was absolutely necessary despite the slow buildup. Though my sick and twisted mind kind of predicted Anna’s motives, I was still deeply moved by what drove her to such extremes. It was the kind of ending that had me pondering it for a long while after I finished, so based on that, I would definitely recommend this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.

I was a fan of the author's first book, and so eager to have this show up in my Kindle library. I was so surprised to dislike this book so intensely. The plot is thin, slow, and the writing ponderous. Will the child eat? Almost 90% of the book is taken up with this thought, and when the resolution comes, it's too little, too late.

Ahoy there me mateys! I have no idea where I first heard about this novel but I did somehow think that it had magical realism. Nope. It’s an historical fiction. And a darn good one at that. I listened to this one in audio book format read by Kate Lock. I wasn’t familiar with the actress and writer but found her voice to be wonderful.

The story takes place in 1859 and involves a young girl named Anna who is the subject of intense debate. People claim that she has not eaten anything in four months yet is thriving. Some call it God’s blessing. Others a hoax. What is the truth? Nurse Lib Wright has been summoned from England to give her expert testimony. She believes that she will quickly come to a conclusion and be back in England in no time. Instead what she finds changes her life forever.

The blurb labels this a psychological thriller. That is true but it is a very slow burning one. The story takes place over a two week period. There are sections of the book that deal with Lib’s days in meticulous detail. I absolutely loved Lib. She is a hard-working, single woman struggling to survive. She is a nurse that served in the Crimean wars and was trained by Florence Nightingale. A firm believer in science, she is completely in culture shock when she arrives in Catholic Ireland. Lib finds herself struggling between her training as a nurse and the task given to her by her employers to act as a non-interfering objective witness.

This book shows Catholicism from the eyes of an outsider. For those readers that might be strongly Catholic, Lib’s outright rejection and suspicion of that faith may be hard to handle. But juxtaposed with Lib’s viewpoints are eleven-year old Anna’s wholehearted faith. Anna is a little girl who most treasured possessions involve prayer cards and other religious articles. She is kind, intelligent though uneducated, and above all devout. It was fascinating to slowly learn how the little girl came to be the center of all the controversy.

And personally I found meself rooting for both Anna and Lib. The author did a fantastic job immersing me in the time period. I found it fascinating that Anna was celebrated for not eating when Ireland had come out of the potato famine not long before. The other characters were richly drawn out. The clash of culture, religion, education, medicinal ideas, gender differences, and class distinctions were explored in exemplary fashion. And I was surprised by how the situation was resolved. I highly recommend this one to the whole crew.

I didn't like this book. That alone would not compel me to review it. I found the book offensive on many levels.

Offensive to nurses, Irish, Catholics, non-Catholics, mothers, clergy, ....
The book is narrated by a nurse hired to observe a girl who the village claims to be living without food. She was hired as a Nightingale nurse who is renowned as objective. This one comes in as controlling and presumptuous. She has little regard for her patient, the family, other medical professionals, the villagers. Then she blabs her theories to a reporter.

No one in this book is likable. So, for a book that isn't written to entertain, I expected it to enlighten or be thought provoking. It was neither. The first half was slow and I nearly gave it up. I read to the end and it actually got worse as it went. I see no purpose in this book other than to degrade people - the faithful, the non-faithful, the family, the doctor, the nurse, the priest, the neighbor.

The tension between science and faith is a very salient one and it is exactly this that drives a lot of the action in Emma Donoghue's The Wonder. Florence Nightingale-trained English nurse Lib Wright is sent out to a village in rural Ireland to help determine what is going on with 11 year-old Anna O'Donnell. The claim is that the child hasn't taken any earthly nourishment since her birthday...four months prior. Lib and another nurse, a nun, are engaged by a council of local citizens to monitor little Anna in shifts, to watch her for two straight weeks to see if her claims are true or if she has, in fact, been eating somehow.

Lib, coming from a more scientific perspective, is sure that the child has been consuming food. She's suspicious of her fellow nurse and the entire O'Donnell family because of their Catholicism, which she believes blinds them to the reality that bodies need food to continue functioning. She institutes strict control over Anna's routine immediately, stopping a flow of visitors that have come to see the little miracle girl. But over the first week, she softens toward the girl herself even as she continues to try to figure out how she's eating. Anna is a sweet, obedient, faithful child, still mourning the recent loss of an older brother, her only sibling. She finds herself wondering if it might somehow be real, if maybe Anna is surviving off of what she says she is: manna from heaven. But Anna starts to take a turn for the worse, and Lib has to figure out what's going on and if she can somehow be saved.

This book was such a disappointment. It indulged in what is one of my least favorite plot devices...to create tension and an atmosphere of suspense, it backloads all the payoff into the end of the book. So, basically, it crawls along with about 25% for about 75% of the book, and then stuffs the last 25% of the book with 75% of the plot. I've never enjoyed consuming books or movies that do this, I think it's a sign of lazy storytelling (which is probably why I don't read a lot of mysteries or thrillers, because it's much more common in those genres). In this case, some of that stuff did need to be left until the end, but there were some revelations about Lib's personal life that could have provided some badly-needed character development up front without compromising the reveals toward the end. And that's not the only example of lazy writing: when a sparkly-eyed, charming reporter shows up at the same rooming house Lib is staying at, it would take an idiot to not recognize that he's going to be a love interest, which is of course exactly what happens. And though good quality prose could have done a lot to make the story flow more smoothly, Donoghue's writing is utilitarian at best. I did not enjoy reading it and would not recommend it.

In all honesty, I was trying really hard to hate this book; to add it to my DNF pile and list of overrated twaddle. I did not succeed.

For the first 40% of The Wonder, I despised the nurse- Lib. She was an overbearing, insufferable, narrow minded creature of such egoism, her own fellow nurses shied from her. She complained. A lot. When she wasn't complaining, she was criticizing her surroundings (Ireland, 1860) and comparing it to the lush and fertile homeland of her England. And she despised her little charge- Anna- whom she was convinced was manipulating adults for attention.

Then, a turn in the novel and Lib's heart grows. We find out why Lib is why she is; we find the sympathy for the poor Anna and her tragic childhood. Tears flow, and we find ourselves waiting with held breath as Anna's life clock starts to wind down..

Tragic, mysterious, educational, edifying. The Wonder is truly a beautifully written novel.

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 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 opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

Oh wow, was I disappointed in this book. Years ago when I read "Room," I couldn't put it down. In contrast, I was almost hoping I would accidentally drop my Kindle in the bathtub while reading this book just so I wouldn't have to finish.

It's basically the same thing over and over until the last 20 min of the book. The main character, Lib, holds watch over the girl, doubts her, doubts her family, is disgusted by Catholicism, then goes back to the inn to rest. Repeat for nearly the entire book and then throw some weird stuff at the end that actually could've made the book better if explored earlier, and there you have it. The writing quality didn't even save this book for me...many times I felt like I was reading a not-good YA book because the writing was so bland and simplistic.

If you attempt to read and get bored with it, don't worry about not finishing it...you won't be missing out on anything.

Emma Donoghue has many writing talents, but the one I especially appreciate is her ability to write about a characters' connection with a child. Her famous novel, Room, showed readers and now film audiences how a young woman takes care of a child whose life is in danger, along with hers.

In The Wonder, the child is Anna, and the setting is an old village in the middle of Ireland during the mid-nineteenth century. Libby is a nurse, trained by Florence Nightingale, during the Crimean War. Libby is hired to watch over a child, Anna, who has reportedly not eaten in four months. Libby alternates shifts with a nun, Sister Michael, who is also a nurse. The two women's charge is to make sure that Anna is not eating, to prove that she is fasting and is thus, "a wonder," of nature or God.

The novel is slim but packed with life's mysteries as seen through a child's eye juxtaposed with her adult nurse who doesn't believe in God and positively hates Anna's sodden village in Ireland. It seems like the whole place could sink at any moment. Libby learns some life lessons along the way, and we learn that we must always think first of the children, at any cost to ourselves. The children are ours to serve. The Wonder is a small gem in today's world of confusion and noise.

4.5 STARS - It took me awhile to get into this book and I almost put it down. But, based on my friend's review I persevered and I'm so glad I did. This is the ultimate slow-burn kind of book and it wasn't until around page 175, two-thirds of the way through, that the book went from slow-burn to fully ignited where you would have had to pry this book out of my hands to get me to stop reading.

The Wonder is a quiet, mysterious and atmospheric read about an eleven-year-old girl who claims to have lived without food for four months and the nurse who is hired to observe the girl to see if this miracle is true or a hoax. Throughout the book, Donoghue gives her readers vivid descriptions of late 19th century rural Ireland's countryside, local hierarchy and people and shows the strong power of faith among many of the locals. The atmosphere is lonely, secluded and dreary. It's within this setting that the plot is slowly revealed as Lib, a Nightingale trained nurse, tries to figure out what is happening to her charge.

Lib is a wonderful main character who goes through a transformation from ardent skeptic to a strong advocate for her patient. She was complex and her feelings were often in line with my own. I loved the backbone she showed with the local men in power and as Lib's concern and frustration increased so did mine. I found myself more and more invested in learning what was going on with this child. I felt a whole gamut of emotions - I was sad, hopeful, curious, anxious but most of all, angry.

My perspective went through a metamorphosis while reading. While I initially didn't think there was a supernatural element involved, as I continued reading, I wasn't entirely sure that there wasn't a possibility of a mystical aspect. How could this eleven-year-old girl survive for four months without food? Donoghue painted such an eerie atmosphere for her readers as well as a strong sense of faith within many of the characters that by the end I felt anything was possible. Could it be a miracle as some of the locals believed? Or was it something more mundane, yet nefarious? I had a few theories but ultimately, I didn't predict the final outcome. Donoghue had me hook, line and sinker.

I also enjoyed seeing the infancy of modern nursing. Donoghue shows the frustrations and struggles nurses experienced to be taken seriously and professionally by doctors. The general limitations of being a woman in the late 19th century is well documented as well.

I don't want to give any of the plot away but just know that I highly recommend this book. It's a slow go at first but the last third of the book makes up for the cautious beginning. While this feels like a different kind of book from Donoghue's other book Room (which I also enjoyed) I think that she gives her readers a similar 'can't put this book down' kind of intense read.

Highly recommended.

As the successful author of the masterpiece that was Room I wondered if The Wonder was going to meet my expectations. It certainly did that, using as inspiration the true life stories of young people that claimed to survive long periods without food, Emma Donoghue has created with this novel another shocking yet riveting story about a child and a disturbing life experience. The protagonist Anna is an eleven year old Irish girl whose family are claiming she is a living miracle. The other main character is Lib Wright a nurse a veteran of the Crimean War and trained by Florence Nightingale, who accepts an assignment to watch over Anna to try and discover if what is being claimed is all a sham!

At first the novel felt slow and took time to figure out with the complications of religion, myth and superstition that had a big influence on Anna's family and their reactions to what was happening to their daughter. It was difficult to understand just how far peoples beliefs would influence them, as it seemed they were prepared to let their own child die, as they persisted in believing in miracles.

A difficult subject to write a novel about and whilst reading you cannot but help find yourself thinking about how an earth the author is going to be able to bring the novel to a satisfactory and believable ending. Well without a doubt in my mind, she has succeeded in writing a realistic yet imaginative ending.

The Wonder will appeal to readers of historical fiction, stories set in Ireland and of course fans of Emma Donoghue's excellent writing.

<b>“Yes, this must have been what they were raving about: not some two-headed calf but Anna O’Donnell, the <i>living wonder</i>.”</b>

It’s 1859 and we see a small Irish village through the eyes of a professional English nurse named Lib. Something in the cadence reminded me of the opening of a classic novel, that expectation of a story that will take you on a memorable journey.

Eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell has been fasting for four months - her family and locals believe her to be a miracle, a “living wonder.”

As Lib tends to the child, logic tells her something’s amiss and it’s confirmed as Anna’s health deteriorates. This story builds like the strong and winding stone walls around the fields of Ireland. What a quiet battle between faith and science!

While some Catholics may bristle at the Protestant nurse’s disdain for this family’s faith, it’s important to note the family depicts a fundamentalist, blind version of Catholicism. Following any faith to the literal letter is a folly when faith is meant to be a light in the darkness, a source of hope, not a replacement for the very sun, the air we breathe. After all, our spirit is still carried in a human fleshly vessel.

Regardless of one’s faith, life is the greatest gift, the Wonder. I’d recommend this book for those who enjoy historical fiction, literary fiction, mystery, and stories that paint Ireland with a sober eye.

Following her duties as one of Florence Nightingale's proteges during the Crimean War, Lib Wright finds herself stuck in the monotonous duties of being a civilian nurse. With the excitement and urgency of the war behind her, Lib longs to find some kind of purpose in her work. When an opportunity in Ireland presents itself, Lib jumps at the chance to do something different. Little does she know that the job will bring about the most personally and professionally challenging situations in her life.

Lib finds herself in the home of the O'Donnell family, a simple dwelling that hosts the mother, father, and daughter whose devotion to each other is only surpassed by their faithful adherence to their religion. Even after the untimely death of their only son, the family remains resolute in their adoration. This devotion reached a miraculous peak when their eleven-year-old daughter Anna started to abstain from all food. For months, young Anna has captured the imagination and curiosity of the faithful and scientific communities by surviving solely on "manna from heaven".

A committee of local medical professionals, businessmen, and clergymen have hired Lib and a subdued nun to keep watch of the girl. They will monitor Anna and her family to either verify to disprove her stunning claims. A strong believer in science and reason, Lib is determined to expose the O'Donnells and frauds. But how can Anna, a child who seems unwavering in her convictions, be the mastermind of such a complex deceit?

Fans of Emma Donoghue's Room may be a bit surprised by the restraint that permeates The Wonder. When I discussed this novel with my book club, most members found the pacing to be unbearable slow. The Wonder is not a fast read. Most of the novel centers around Lib keeping watch over Anna in the confines of the child's bedroom. Unlike Room, the novel is driven not by action, but by the developments and revelations of the characters. For her part, Donoghue allows the mystery of the situation to bubble beneath the surface of the entire book. Each character interaction inches closer to an ending that is both satisfying and astonishing in it's revelation. In The Wonder Donoghue weaves a quietly provocative tale of morality and spirituality that is clever as it is revealing.

Lib has been assigned to observe an eleven-year-old girl for two weeks. The girl is gaining a lot of attention for the belief that she has survived four months without food. Lib's boss believes it a hoax and has arranged around the clock monitoring to prove the hoax.

This book was very tragically beautiful. I love the hopes and beauty of the story and the beliefs. I love the little girl and her steadfast beliefs. I both listened to this in audiobook and actually read it. The narrator did a fantastic job. If I have anything to criticize about this book, it's the possible historical inaccuracy. I felt certain things happened in the story that just wouldn't have happened in that time era. That's just my opinion though.

The story has such a nice flow about it. There were certain things I'd wish had been drawn a bit more out for clarification purposes. There were also times where I wish had a better explanation and background story. Other than that though, it was beautiful and flowed very smoothly. I couldn't help but get drawn up in the story emotionally.

I just adored four of the main characters in the story. I can't lie, I didn't really care for the nurse or the nun, to begin with. They had no personality at all. It was like they obeyed orders or stuck to their own fierce beliefs and that was it. Nothing else could sway their opinions at all. As the story progressed, I developed an adoration for both of them and for the child.

Even though I had some criticism about the book, I give it a full five-star rating. It was a beautiful story. I'll probably read it again many times over. It was very inspirational and I'm ashamed I would have never discovered this book if it hadn't been for my book club meetings.

I found this book disappointing and a little irritating. The book contains a number of questions: Is the anorexic girl of the title being used by her community to prove that she's subsisting on nothing, which would make her a religious phenomenon and bring admirers to the village. Or, when the narrator, a nurse, arrives from England to supervise her, will she be forced to eat nothing at all and so die? Is she part of a fraud? If so, why? Why is the narrator so willfully ignorant of the symptoms of starvation, the excesses of Catholic dogma, and her duty as a nurse to save her patient by speaking out?
The entire book is made of questions, which all appear as interior monologue - that was irritating in the extreme. There must have been an average of three per page in the paper version. I was ready to shout the answers to the narrator, which I suppose meant I was engaged, but I was becoming more enraged than engaged by the end. A plot appeared in the last 20% of the book, and had I been reading it, I might have given up sooner, but since this was an audiobook, I kept going to the last page. An editor could have fixed it, I think.

Emma Donoghue sets a slow inexorable pace. It matches the pace of life in the sodden Irish countryside to which Lib Wright travels from London in order to earn 2 weeks' wages. Her patient is 11-year-old Anna O'Donnell, a fasting girl.

Mrs. Elizabeth (Lib) Wright is a nurse trained by Florence Nightingale. She believes in a scientific approach, strict hygiene and patient care. She had seen death in squalid quarters in Scutari during the Crimean War. Her personal back story of how she came to be a 'widow' is gradually revealed.

Mrs. Wright distrusts the wonder the Irish villagers of Athlone – rich and poor, doctor and clergy – expound. Lib Wright knows that anyone who fasts indefinitely will die. She believes that Anna is no miracle girl. Hired to confirm that the girl is sustained by no more than manna from heaven, Lib instead witnesses Anna fading away. Anna’s parents, cousin and village elders do nothing to force her to stop her fast.

The author cleverly contrasts the potato famine in Ireland that ended 7 years prior, with the self-inflicted fast by Anna.

The slow day by day process of Lib's observations, dawning realisations and ardent persuasions make the reader feel as if they were in the centre of Ireland, watching an ostensibly devout child and family slowly unfurl. Yet the tension is maintained. Characters stay true to form, never varying, never caricatures. Newspaper journalist, William Byrne, adds much-needed objectivity, relief and romantic release from the claustrophobic house in which the O’Donnells live, and in which Lib Wright works.

There is much said about Catholic rituals and beliefs not rooted in substance. You learn something about the nursing of the era, Ireland of the 1850's and early photography called daguerreotype.

The ending is worth the wait.

This was such a good read! The story takes place in Ireland, roughly a decade after the end of the Great Hunger (Irish Potato famine of 1845-52). A child is reported to be "a wonder", a miracle that is living without food. A nurse arrives, summoned by a commission of villagers to determine whether or not the child is really living on nothing but a few spoonfuls of water, each day. The nurse is from England and is not given the full details of her job, prior to arriving. She is appalled to learn that her job is to simply watch a child and make sure that the child really is not consuming any food. As the story progresses, we learn more and more about the child, as does her nurse, who must make a decision whether to faithfully continue her duties, or try and save a child's life.

I found the writing was at a tempo (I know, odd term) that actually made the story an even better read. The author's writing is not colorful, or dramatic, despite the subject matter. It was even, low key and slowly built in intensity, until the story reaches its climax. There is a slow, burning drama, without any melodrama.

I really enjoyed the historical details pertaining to the nurse's background and 19th century Ireland. The struggle between science and religion is a theme, within the story, but it is subtle. This author really, really knows her craft. This is smart writing that keeps you turning the pages!

This new novel by the author of "Room" is an entirely different take on what it means to be trapped and to be rescued. It is set in rural post-famine Ireland in the late 1850s. An English nurse trained under Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War is dispatched to a small town, where an eleven-year-old girl is said to be experiencing a miracle: she has not eaten a morsel of food since in the four months since her eleventh birthday and is subsiding on manna from Heaven alone. By order of a local commission of officials, including the local priest, the nurse and a middle-aged Sister of Mercy take on the task of keeping 24-hour watch over the girl to prove that the girl is truly a miracle ... or that she is a fraud.

"The Wonder" is an intimate book, focusing on the experience of Lib, the Nightengale nurse, a born skeptic and adherent of science. Her skepticism is caustic and derisive. She imagines that she will uncover the fraud in her first shift. In fact, a week passes without any sign of fraud -- but a clear deterioration in the girl's health. Ultimately, Lib sees the watch itself as a peril to the girl's survival.

The girl at the heart of this book is a lovely, pious, and intelligent character, albeit guilt-ridden and stubborn in the extreme. The villagers that surround her are fervently Catholic and allow their thirst for a miracle to overwhelm their love for the girl.

Lib, on the other hand, is not particularly likeable, and that is the particular flaw of the novel. She is unsympathetic, brusque, argumentative, superior, dismissive, anti-Irish and -Catholic, and bumbling -- if very, very smart and very very lonely. When she ultimately attempts her escape from her predicament, the reader is not actually rooting for her success, but rather hopes she ends up in jail. This does not appear to be what Donoghue intended.

Turning the first page of this book was easy. After reading Emma Donoghue’s well-known ROOM, I knew that I would be taken into a story by an author with impeccable writing chops and a proclivity for unusual storytelling.

I wasn’t wrong.

The story immediately dropped me off in 1850s Ireland (without a tedious history lesson, thank you very much), seen through the eyes of pragmatic nurse Elizabeth “Lib” Wright. Trained by Florence Nightingale herself, we learn that Lib’s services have been acquired by Dr. McBrearty to provide some respectability and accountability for somewhat of a local experiment: proving that Anna O’Donnell, age 11, is telling the truth about fasting for over four months.

In this context, the book provides a brilliant juxtaposition between Lib’s scientific, medical skepticism and the cast of locals desperate to believe the “miracle.” Complicating everything is the surrounding culture of unwavering belief in superstitions, mixed with a healthy dose of religiosity that Lib runs into at every turn.

As the compliant Anna and Lib get to know each other, Lib’s tasks become less motivated by duty and are more driven by care for her young charge, which is an important grounding for the book. However, as days wear on and shift after shift is described, the author doles out new information sparingly and I found the reading experience a bit wearing. I mean, Lib’s diligence to observing Anna was admirable, but not always the most scintillating reason to turn the page.

What I did really enjoy was the way that Florence Nightingale became a character in the book, reflected in her obvious influence in Lib’s training and life-at-large. Learning more about her was a fascinating look into an incredible woman to whom the whole world owes a great debt for challenging the good-intentioned but often erroneous medical conventions of the day.

The book rebounds as a new character, journalist and lapsed-but-restored believer William Byrne, arrives on the scene. A worthy sparring partner and sounding board for a confused and troubled Lib, his energy is enough to lift the story forward and provide a much-needed turning point in the plot.

Donoghue’s prose throughout is a force to be reckoned with, but I found the portrayals along the spectrum of faith particularly compelling. While most of the well-meaning townfolks’ blind faith leads Anna to the brink of death and Lib’s faith in science alone causes friction amongst their ranks, Byrne’s hard-earned weighted faith provided completion to a delicate balance of viewpoints in the story.

Notably, especially this pivotal conversation about a well-worn subject of faith between Lib and Byrne, which raised the question of how God could exist and allow suffering in the world.

“‘The war, then?’

‘At Scurtari,’ Lib said, ‘I found myself thinking, If the Creator can’t prevent such abominations, what good is he?’

‘Finer minds than yours have reached the same impasse. It’s a great puzzle.’”

Charmingly, in the safety of this “say anything” friendship that brings out the best in them both, Lib becomes more relatable and Byrne less jaded. I found this budding relationship the highlight of the book and wish more time had been spent filling this storyline out.

While Donoghue’s latest tale begins as a fairly straightforward story, fans will be relieved to know that it doesn’t end that way. All the fragments scattered throughout the pages come together in a well-earned, satisfying and, dare I say, thrilling ending to THE WONDER.

Reviewed by Amy Haddock

The story is of an accomplished English nurse hired to watch over an Irish girl said to be able to go without eating any food. This would be around the end of Florence Nightingale's life, around 1910, which roughly puts it in the later years of the spiritualism movement and the earlier years of the women's movement, or at least particular waves of each (by the way, this would probably explain why the nurse's name is Lib -- as in women's lib.)

Though she's just supposed to make observations, Lib can't help but solve the mystery of where the food might be coming from and why the family might be perpetrating a scam. She's a rabble-rouser who doesn't always keep to her place, doesn't go to church, and makes no bones about her revulsion of Ireland in general. That's pretty good fun for a while, especially when, after getting yet another meal she doesn't like, she asks, "Do the Irish hate food?" Ha. But that bit of spirited fun disappears as the child becomes more and more symptomatic from not eating.

The book reminded me so very much of Agnes of God: smarter, savvier lay woman comes to a very closed, very religious sect to solve a mystery and help a younger woman. I liked Agnes of God better. There's something very ugly about watching a nurse allow a child to suffer because she doesn't want to rock the boat even if she does come around.

spoilers:
Oh the ending. The ending makes me wonder why Donoghue has to make her female characters suffer so much. If we're not suicidal sex slaves we're suicidal child molestation victims. It doesn't make me want to pick up another Donoghue novel. As well as she might do writing them; I'm done. And yes, we're to see Lib as an empowered woman, but she really only wants to rock the boat (and save the child) when the cute boy chides her for not doing it. She also never gets any comeuppance for her discrimination of the Irish. Yes, she finds one nice man and finally sees how England may have played a role in Ireland's misfortunes, but otherwise she finds Ireland collectively actually worse than she ever knew.
And finally, I really wanted the fairies story line to go somewhere, but that fizzled out into nothing. Would rather fairies than a family letting their girl wither and die to cover up their precious dead boy's secrets. Though the ending's supposed to be positive, I didn't feel it.

I was given the opportunity via Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley to read The Wonder. This is my honest opinion of the book.

Trained by the great Florence Nightingale, a young English nurse by the name of Lib Wright is hired by the council of an impoverished Irish village to determine whether an 11 year old girl is the perpetrator of a hoax. Anna O'Donnell has not eaten for four months, subsiding on nothing more than small sips of water. As Anna has said that a higher power is sustaining her life with manna, skeptics and ardent supporters alike have prompted a prolonged vigil alternately by Lib and a nun, to uncover the truth. As days pass and the child's health wavers, will Lib figure out if she is witnessing a miracle or if something is amiss?

Although the book was slow from the start, the author perfectly captures the feeling of living in a small town in Ireland. My favorite character is Lib, who evolves as a person throughout the book. Her desire to perform her duties to the best of her abilities are in direct conflict with the job she was hired to do and the author was able to convey her emotional state quite well. The idea that a devout follower would go to the lengths that Anna has taken is nothing new in a novel, but the reveal and the ending take this book to a whole new level. The mystery surrounding Anna's ability to survive for four months without food is the primary focus of the book, but it is just the cover over a much deeper meaning. The Wonder is a well developed novel with complete characters and one that I would recommend to other readers.

Why did Emma Donoghue, the author of the novel, The Wonder, wait until half way through the book before pouring her heart and soul into it? I came to this work of fiction with high hopes that I would love it because I loved the author, who I had the great good fortune to meet at the Morristown, NJ book fair last October and she was delightful, someone I would like to have as a friend. Two of the three Donoghue novels I'd read previously were excellent. To Room, her most well known novel, I gave 4.5 stars, 4 stars to her book of short stories, Astray and 3 stars to Frog music. I give The Wonder, Donoghue 's latest novel, 3.5 stars (had I stopped reading after the third chapter it would have been 2.5).

An English nurse, who was trained by Florence Nightingale, is sent to Ireland in 1859 to study, actually watch and observe, a girl, 11 years old, who has stopped eating. It is a time and place where religion (Catholicism) rules the day and superstitions abound. The nurse, Lib, however, is more pragmatic and science oriented, putting her at odds with the girl's family and the members (all men, of course) of the committee who brought Lib to Athlone, a remote, poor, quite, wet and boggy part of Ireland and they paid her way, as well as a stipend.

The first half of the book, though quite readable, at least partially due to Donoghue's beautiful use of language and the literary intelligence in this and all of her books, felt to me as if not much was happening. I mean, obviously things happened. Perhaps it was overly descriptive. I don't know, I simply was not enamored with the first half. As I neared the end of the book, it occurred to me that Donoghue could have weaved some of the events, insights and stirring story telling of the second half into the first half, perhaps by way of clues or innuendos of what was to come, something. So be it.
I am happy to say that the second half made up for the first. A major theme in the book that caught my full attention was the roles of and attitudes towards women by men, especially those men with just a modicum of power (the priest, the Doctor, the male Teacher, the Baronet (a man with the title, Sir, but no other meaningful distinction), and the Publican (the pub owner), all committee members to which Lib had to answer. As Lib, herself says, nursing was in its infancy at the time and she derived little credit or recognition for her efforts. I don't want to include a spoiler, but I do want to mention that then in 1859, as regrettably, today, a girl or woman who was raped or otherwise mistreated, was considered to have brought it on herself. Some things never totally change.

One last thing. Emma Donoghue has a way of creating child characters, as she did in Room, with Jack and does so again with Anna, that shows children's intelligence, forthrightness and intuition, while at the same time their innocence, fragility and vulnerability. She is an author to follow and in the end, When all is said and done, The Wonder, lives up to its name.

This was a very good book, though I think it would have been even better as a novella. There's not quite enough to fill a novel, but it's too much for a short story. So...novella. Of course, novellas don't sell...[sigh]. Anyway, if it were shorter, some of the first part could be trimmed, because it gets quite samey. With too much repetition it's easy to lose impact. For example, Lib's snide skepticism and anti-religious thoughts eventually stop being culturally interesting and start coming off as just plain mean-spirited. The hints of various truths are too numerous, leading to a loss of impact when Lib figures out a couple of things that we—the readers in her head—have all known for a long time. In the last third or so of the book, these problems disappear and the story wraps you up in its tension and suspense.

It is a very, very interesting concept, a very interesting catch-22, a very interesting historical setting. We get a great feel for the time and the very small world some of these characters inhabit.

The writing is very good.

Now, this is very subjective, and not a deal-breaker for this book, but here's my issue with—for lack of a better word—Hollywood. Not every book has to have a romance! Romance is fine, but it's not the only thing interesting to read about. A book can be complete—and sometimes even stronger—without the protagonist having a romance This is one of those cases. The story is about Lib and Anna. The romance feels quite tacked on. It kind of works in the very end, but there could have been a similar and just as satisfying ending without the out-of-character love story. Others will certainly disagree.

The last few chapters are very good—and I'm one who usually prefers middles. The book is disturbing and thought-provoking and eerie...yet strangely heart-warming. I really did enjoy it. I'm guessing that if Donoghue had felt free to write it exactly as she wanted, without any regard to what would sell, it would have been five stars.

I'll read more of Emma Donoghue in the future.

I wanted to love this book, the idea was intriguing and the bones of the story seemed solid. Then I started reading.

I hated Lib, the main character, from almost her first line and while her evolution during the book was supposed to redeem her to the reader it just never did for me. She was prejudiced against the Irish, against poor people, against anyone she deemed less educated than her, and certainly against the Roman Catholics in Ireland. She makes bold assumptions about everyone around her and what they believe and think while claiming to be fully based in science. That doesn't work for me because she immediately begins calling this 11 year old names like "sneak, charlatan, and liar" which, while she may certainly doubt the claims of the girl, does not fit in with her supposed dedication to nursing and science.
The rest of the book is fine although the reveals about the parents, the committee, and the community just got worse and worse. But it felt like Lib was trying to solve a mystery that really didn't matter. Every revelation was met with incredulity by those told that it became painfully obvious that there was no point for Lib continuing and frankly I'm surprised she wasn't fired or thrown out at many points.
The ending was satisfying but not sure that it was worth forcing myself to read the first 2/3 of the book. Overall disappointing.

Third person account about a hired nurse from England, formerly trained by Florence Nightengale, who now has been hired by a local committee to keep watch on a young Irish girl named Anna to either witness "The Wonder" or expose the fraud. She is told that Anna does not require food and for several months now has appeared healthy without anything but an occasional sip of water. Lib, think Julia Roberts, is determined to prove this is a hoax. She is also co observing with a nun who will spell her every eight hours and between the two will report back to the town council their findings. Is the girl a blessed miracle. Or a scam. A writer appears, think Owen Wilson, and convinces Lib that he should be able to see the girl as well to write about it for the paper and to observe for himself.
The author reveals in the afterword that the novel is based on some actual events throughout history of girls who starve themselves, of “so-called Fasting Girls” between the 16th and 20th centuries, but the case that most closely resembles the one in her novel is that of Sarah Jacob.
The novel was pleasant enough to read, a period piece of Ireland in the late 1860's. I will be interested to see the upcoming movie starring the aforementioned actors.

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. 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.

Eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell is quickly becoming famous for her claim to not have eaten anything in four months.

As tourists flock to the family home in Ireland, desperate for the little girl's blessings, English nurse Lib Wright is summoned by a town committee to keep a strict two-week vigilance and ascertain that the O'Donnells' claims are true. Lib - who trained under Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War - is no nonsense, sure that she'll expose the fraud within days.

Yet despite herself, Lib finds her feelings start to muddy. Anna is a sweet and loving girl, totally honest and desperate for approval. Lib is sure there must be fraud somewhere, but where? As she begins to know the O'Donnells and their history, Lib sees there is no simple truth or fallacy here.

As in Donoghue's previous historical novels, the level of detail is breathtaking, yet casually enough interspersed so as not to bog down the story.

The Wonder, by Emma Donaghue: Wow! This was unlike anything I have read in decades, and is not a book I would have chosen for myself, but a friend gave me her copy to read and I am SO glad she DID! The writing is of great literary quality. The plot moved quietly along towards an incredible climax with a huge twist at the end. Can an 11 year old girl in mid 1800's Ireland live for 4 months without eating? Her parents claim she is doing just that! The town, including a priest, a doctor, and a committee wondering if the child is the next great Saint hire an English nurse and an Irish nun to watch the child round the clock for two weeks in her home in rural Ireland. During those two weeks, she spirals downward, clearly dying, but swearing to all she is living on manna from heaven. Lib, the nurse, grows to love this spunky little girl who refuses all nourishment other than a few teaspoons of water each day. She sees the child, Anna, dying before her eyes, and is helpless to stop it. No one is bringing the child food under her watch, nor under the watch of the nun. How is she still living, and why is she now failing at an accelerated rate? A reporter comes to town and stays at the same boarding house as Lib. He is pragmatic and cannot believe a child could live for 4 months without a morsel of food. He pushes Lib to uncover secrets and to try to save Anna. Anna's parents don't seem terribly bothered by her condition. Instead, they seem to feel this is God's choice. I WAS able to let time go between readings of this novel, and yet every moment I spent inside it's pages were moments of vast appreciation for the style of Donaghue's writing, the plot and its originality. The Wonder is a great novel, one which English teachers would be wise to integrate into their high school or college curriculum. There is so much food for thought and discussion. This is a book I will LONG remember!

I'm going to give this book five stars although technically I have not read it. I only listened to it on audio book, read by another genius, Kate Lock. For American readers especially, I highly recommend listening to rather than or in addition to reading this book since the accenting of English is such a key part of the story and there is no way I could do this for myself in my head while I was reading.

I also have to disclose that I am not an expert on Irish history during the middle of the 19th century, but for me the story rang true. Especially as I may say that most of my DNA derives from Ireland and nearly all of the rest comes from Wales. My grandmother was Brooklyn Irish and while I was listening to Kate Lock I heard Meryl Streep's Brooklyn accent in "Doubt" and found the meeting of the two inflections of the common language we don't share with the British, apparently, according to them. But what do they know?

The story really gets to the heart of the matter, which is a very personal matter for me, SPOILER ALERT. When I was around 11, the age of the anorexic child central to the story, I begged my Brooklyn Irish Catholic grandmother to protect me from her son, my father, who was sexually abusing me, and as a result she completely turned against me. I became the villain of the piece.

If only I had thought of starving myself to death! I did contemplate suicide around that time in my life the first time for sure. But, maybe I could have become a Wonder, a saint, or the Mahatma Gandhi of Woodstock, NY, starving myself to death on the doorstep of so-called incest that is always somehow coincidentally the fault of the female involved, even if (as in my case) it started out when I was four years old and then became ever progressively worse in a climate of extreme brutality where my father fully enjoyed his entitlement to punish me with the utmost severity for his sins. This is a departure from the *spoiler alert* but part of why I recognize the truthful underpinnings of this book.

If only there had been someone in my life like Lib.

“The Wonder” is a complex story about an 11 year old child, Anna, believed to be a spiritual Wonder for her seeming ability to exist without eating. The story takes place in a small town in Ireland in the late 1800s, where a committee is established to effectively authenticate the Wonder. The committee hires two nurses to observe Anna 24 hours a day for two weeks to confirm that the child in fact does not eat.

One of the nurses retained is a nun from a nearby convent, who believes in the possibility of religious miracles and more significantly believes in following instruction. The other nurse, Lib, is from England and studied nursing under Florence Nightingale. Lib is not Catholic, has no religious beliefs and follows only her own instruction. To say she is skeptical of organized religion and the idea that a person, let alone an 11 year old child, could survive without food, may be an understatement, although her skepticism is tested in many ways.

Anna is a charming sensitive child who spends much of her day quoting scripture. People come from near and far to see the Wonder, and when asked how she survives, Anna responds “I live on manna from heaven.” Anna and Lib develop a close relationship throughout the novel.

The novel is complex in that it addresses difficult issues such as religion, gender roles, science, education and poverty. The novel raises questions about the medical profession in terms of its ethics, training and the compassion of its providers. In speaking to another character in the novel, Lib explains the relationship between patient and medical professional as follows: “It seems to come naturally, to care more about the individual than the crowd. ..[t]hat’s why Miss–the lady who trained me…wouldn’t allow us to sit down beside a particular patient and read to him and so on. Said it could lead to attachment.” The novel also raises interesting issues about journalistic integrity and responsibility.

It is impossible to say much more about the story without giving away its many twists and turns. The characters, as well as the themes of the novel, are perspicacious, although the novel suffers from slow development of the story and characters, repetitiveness and the all too neat and convenient ending. I’ve read worse but I’ve definitely read better.

If you like this post and would like to read more, please visit FromBriefsToBooks.com.

{Many thanks to the publisher providing me with an eARC of The Wonder free of charge.}

I'm starting to think that books should have a label on the front saying: "Warning: This book is atmospheric." Given Donoghue's last book, Room, and the plot summary that hinted at a mystery, I was surprised that this novel fell into the atmospheric category. Let's just say that atmospheric novels and I are not best friends.

Like Room, The Wonder is told almost entirely in one place - the bedroom of Anna O'Donnell, whose family says that she has not even for four months. In order to prove the authenticity of this claim, her village puts together a committee, which hires two nurses to come watch Anna for two weeks, to see if she eats anything. One of these nurses is Lib, our narrator, who studied under Florence Nightingale in the Crimea.

About halfway through this novel, I tired of the Catholic bashing (full disclosure: I am Catholic). I can usually embrace skepticism of religion, because it is such a personal belief, but goodness gracious, it became repetitive and felt like filler to make the novel longer.

Well written and with some laugh out loud jokes, The Wonder would appeal to fans of historical fiction and Irish culture. It was a miss for me for the reasons stated above, and other that I won't share to avoid spoilers. Now, if Donoghue writes a book about nurses in the Crimean War, I'd be the first to pick it up - the short passages about those parts of Lib's past were fascinating.

This novel initially held my interest, perhaps because food refusal in a child is a compelling subject. This is the first novel I have read by this author, and her gift as a writer helped to move the story along until it became hard to believe that the characters would act as they did. We are told at the outset that the eleven-year-old child Anna has allegedly not eaten anything for four months. There must be some explanation for why she has not died—a number of characters have started to think that this is a miracle. The problem with this premise is that once Anna began showing obvious physical signs of starvation, it would have been clear to any priest or nun that this did not fit with an act of God or the life of a saint. (The medieval saint Catherine of Genoa who consumed nothing but the Eucharist during the six weeks of Lent was notable only because she maintained robust health.) There is nothing miraculous about starvation or semi-starvation. Once the health of an individual becomes compromised, fasting is viewed as excessive and not a reason for adulation. Another problem in this novel is that we are expected to believe that none of the adults surrounding Anna care for the child as much as the novel's heroine--the nurse who arrives from England to observe and keep watch over the young patient. The author tries to convince us that the other adult characters were held captive by "religious superstition." My experience while reading was to stop at intervals, having been pulled out of the story because what was happening was just too hard to fathom, which made this work of fiction seem kind of shallow or silly. I heard about The Wonder in a review that compared it with Ron Hansen's fiction, but the difference is that Ron Hansen is a Catholic deacon who understands Catholicism. A child who stops eating and begins to decline in health is not a "wonder" or a saint. Maybe a group of misinformed and remote curiosity seekers who don't have all the facts might think so, but not a doctor, a priest, and a nun who actually knew and observed the child close up. Setting this story in historical rural Ireland does not change the absurdity of the author's proposition.

For me,The Wonder by Emma Donoghue got off to a slow start partly at the beginning it was difficult to understand the Irish accent of most of the characters. Then, there was the question of why Lib Wright was requested to come to this poor Irish village. Since she had been one of the nurses who was trained and worked under Florence Nightingale during that Crimean War, she assumed that it was a regular nursing position. But she found out that she was not required to use her nursing skills and but to merely observe if the child received any food. The assignment came from a committee of elders who wanted her to spy on young Anna O'Donnell. Her duty was to find out if she was really surviving with no food for four months or was she faking.

This bothered Lib Wright, of course, she was trained to give comfort and aid healing not to be a spy. She went through a lot of debate with herself on whether or not to take this assignment. When we listen to Lib talk, we are right there with Lib, wondering about the girl, wondering if Anna was trying to trick people, then wondering about her parents and each day becoming more and more attached to Anna. Lib has deep secrets of her own but know them makes us want to mother Anna more. And Anna is there too, not feeling sorry for herself but seemingly very burdened with a secret that is behind the idea of starvation.

The closer that Lib gets to Anna's secret, the more we care for the both of them. Like The Room, the idea of Mother is central to this story but the author takes it to a completely different realm and with a poetic grace.

I highly recommend this audio book for all who love stories about children and mothering.

I think I picked this novel up because I wanted to see why it was so popular. I was anticipating an exciting novel and as I read, I really didn’t understand the hype. A child, an eleven- year old girl was entertaining the world with the notion that she was surviving on a mere few drops of water each day. This child was thought to be a Wonder. My thoughts went back to people claiming that they were virgins, never to have sex yet they were pregnant, people who have the image of Christ on their pieces of toast yet they did nothing to create it, all Wonders! I was hoping that the author would throw me a line, that she would reveal something to me before the characters realized the truth behind why Anna was surviving on a few drops of water each day. I wanted to know beforehand and then watch the characters as they discovered the truth because I knew that they were somehow missing something, that they were blind to the facts that had to be staring them right in the face,

I thought it slow going as the story unraveled, I wanted instant results just like nurse Lib and Sister Michael who was assigned to Anna. I wanted to know the reason behind this phenomenon. The days passed slowly, I was only reading about them but to experience them had to be a nightmare. As Anna’s health starts to deteriorate, it starts to become a nightmare. How will this all going to end? Who will actually be the winner and what does the winner actually win? For being such a popular novel, I was surprised at the content and the pace of this novel. Did I like it? I was glad that I read it, it was interesting and the story intrigued me and I don’t know if it could have been shorter as you needed that anticipation and mystery to the story but it’s not a favorite of mine.

Plot Teaser
English nurse Lib Wright is called to Ireland to oversee a two-week watch over an eleven year-old girl named Anna who claims to have been in a complete fast for 4 months. Lib alternates in her supervision of Anna every eight hours with a Nun who is definitely less skeptical of the power of God to induce a miraculous fasting ability in the girl. Actually, Lib seems to be the only skeptic in town when it comes to Anna’s fast, and as the girl’s health starts to deteriorate, Lib struggles to make Anna’s parents, the town’s doctor and the town’s priest see the reality of Anna’s condition.

What I Liked
I have never read a book like this in terms of its premise – it felt highly original to me – though originality is definitely not unexpected from the author of Room. There’s no central romance, no actual played out family squabbles, and the child in the story is not a protagonist coming of age but almost a ghost of herself, being watched by the actual main character. If only just for the originality of its plot, the book is definitely worth a read.

I liked that each chapter of the book started with the definition of a word central to the novel’s plot. Using words that have multiple meanings like nurse, watch and fast, the author guides the reader to consider that multiple people watching the same situation unfold may have completely different interpretations of it. Like the novel’s characters, the reader wavers between skepticism and belief, questioning alongside Lib wether a girl can subsist on spiritual nutrition alone.

Lib, and eventually journalist William Byrne, represent the atheist or less ardently religious skeptics who believe there is a conspiracy behind the girl’s fast – that someone has provided sustenance to the girl in secret. On the other hand, Anna’s parents, her cousin Kitty, Doctor McBrearty and the village priest Thaddeus, due to their blinding religious zealotry, seem unwilling even in the face of contradicting evidence to let go of their idea of a miracle.

I knew that the end of the book would bring some kind of resolution to the mystery of whether Anna was truly fasting for four months, but there were two very big twists at the end of the novel that I did not see coming. Though the novel is not a traditional crime thriller, the mystery at the center of the plot lends itself to that kind of surprising final revelation and action. There were definitely a couple of points at the end of the book where I gasped out loud and even exclaimed “What?!”. It’s not many books that have twists you don’t see coming at least partially, so I enjoyed that The Wonder was really able to change the tables on my expectations.

What I Didn’t Like
I really loved the novel, but I do think that its characters were too polarized on the issue of whether Anna was experiencing a real miracle or not. The character of the Nun is the most middle of the road character out of the bunch – she starts out more believing and turns more skeptical as the narrative progresses – but it would have been nice to have additional nuanced middle-ground characters who expressed uncertainty about Anna one way or the other.

Final Verdict
Not just a book about uncovering some religious conspiracy but one who will make you think about your spiritual beliefs, what constitutes a real miracle, and the meaning of life and death.

I actually found this book somewhat deftly written - mainly due to there being a lot of cleverly used words in it - until about one-fourth into it, which is when I got into the rhythm of the book. Without spoiling anything, that's when it became a bit more interesting to me.

However, the cleverness of the book is also its biggest pratfall. Even though 19th century lingo <i>is</i> 19th century, this seemed like an exercise in not following Mark Twain's adage, where he said: "Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do".

The plot wore too thinly for me across the book, and I missed both atmosphere and more flavours. It was a bit too hard to swallow for me (pun most definitely intended).

3.5 stars. "The Wonder" grabbed my attention from the first pages with an engaging narrator; Lib Wright, an intelligent English nurse trained in the Crimean War by Florence Nightingale, and an intriguing premise; her assignment brings her to pastoral Ireland of the late 1850s in order to observe an eleven-year-old girl who has become something of a spiritual wonder as she is described as physically well and cheerful even though she is said to have taken no food for four months.

Lib is immediately skeptical that the girl is taking no sustenance and is suspicious of her family, their Roman Catholic religion, and the magical thinking of the rural Irish community surrounding her. She proceeds to observe the girl and her home with a hawkish eye for fraud, but even her rational nature can not keep her from becoming attached to her subject, the young Anna O'Donnell, a sweet natured and pious child.

Donoghue is at her best conjuring her characters with a compassionate eye and stirring the pot of mystery as we become observers alongside Lib. Although some aspects of the storyline become apparent well before the conclusion of the book, the personalities kept me engaged throughout. Also, the end may feel contrived for some, but did not mar the overall quality of the writing, character development, or plot for me. A light parallel to the story of "Adam Bede" and a touch of romance sweetened the deal for me.

"The Wonder" will appeal to readers who enjoy historical fiction, the observation of a culture through the eyes of a stranger, and the interplay of the rational and the romantic or the scientific and the spiritual, but some readers may be disappointed if they are seeking a more plot driven piece with surprising who-done-it twists and turns.

From the author of the Best Selling novel Room, also a major motion picture, comes The Wonder. A story of two strangers brought together by a dark secret, and the bond that forms between them.

Lib Wright, an original Nightingale trained by Miss Florence herself as a nurse comes to an impoverished little Irish village on a rather bizarre mission.

Anna O'Donnell is said to have eaten not a thing in over four months. With people coming from near and far to see and touch this "miracle girl", Lib is to be accountable to a select group in town, which includes the doctor and the priest. Her job is to keep watch over Anna for two weeks. Sharing shifts with another nurse and nun, they are to determine if someone is sneaking the child food or if this actually is some kind of living wonder.

Lib is certain it is nothing of the kind and from the start is sure this will be a short lived job and she will be able to report that nothing miraculous is happenning.

But as the days go by, Lib discovers there is a lot going on here that is just as dark as the room she inhabits.

Ms. Donoghue is a master at weaving these stories full of tension and suspense. This novel is dark, compelling and the author's use of language and descriptions are spot on.

This is one which will stay with you a long time. Questions about faith and beliefs will be challenged and in the end, as always, you will be better for reading it!

Thank you Ms. Donoghue!

This is an extremely hard review for me to write. How to describe a book which is beautifully written, has well described characters but which made me feel so sad and upset for this child that I don’t know that I could recommend it to a friend.

We are witness to a little girl, Anna, age 11, who is said to have not eaten anything for four months yet is still thriving. Lib is a competently trained nurse, trained by Florence Nightingale in the Crimean war, who is hired to watch over the girl to make sure that she doesn’t eat anything.
There is also a local nun who will “watch” Anna during opposite shifts so that she will never be alone at any time.

The town in Ireland, in the 1850’s, is very small and the people are very religious. Besides their Christian faith they seem to be a superstitious lot believing in fairies and mysticism. Lib believes that the family has somehow been feeding the little girl and scamming people who come from far and wide to visit this “miracle” child. She is determined to find out the answer but continues to do nothing but watch, which she was hired to do, until the little girl becomes bedridden, dehydrated and nearing death, when she finally decides to do something, but what? Lib also has her own secrets, her background, which she has closely guarded.

The parish priest is hoping that she is a true miracle as the donations that people make to the family go directly to the parish. The town doctor is no help, he is old, ignorant and doesn’t see what is right in front of him. Lib eventually meets a journalist who is in town to cover the story and this friendship is helpful in opening Lib’s eyes to how quickly Anna is deteriorating.

All of my senses told me from the start that the family had to be involved in some way? How can a mother stand by and watch her child starve to death? They had just lost a son a few years previous, how can they bear to repeat the suffering? Who all is involved in this hoax and most importantly, why?

From the author’s interview I found this very helpful in describing the little girl. “Anna is a very powerless little girl. You know, she’s growing up in an era where young women had zero political power. She has decided to be the best little Catholic girl she can be. And she’s taken the grownups very seriously. She’s taken their rules very literally, and she’s taken it all to a great extreme.” The reader is constantly wondering why she is doing this. Is it just her faith and belief that she has been chosen by God or is something else at work here?

This is an extremely talented writer, I could picture the town and it’s dusty roads, crumbling buildings and small sod laden homes. She describes the atmosphere and mood of everyone so that I felt I got a glimpse of them.

There are many who I’m sure will enjoy this book tremendously but it bothered me to the core. I’m glad that I read it and will look for other books by this author.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publishers and NetGalley.

I enjoyed The Wonder. It is slow to start, but once it gets going I had to know what was going to happen!

English nurse Lib is brought the Ireland to watch 11 year old Anna O’Donnell. She is believed to not have eaten anything since her eleventh birthday, which was four months ago. Word has gotten out about Anna and people are traveling from everywhere to see or meet “The Wonder”. Anna believes she is surviving on manna from Heaven and has no need to eat. Lib is a skeptic. Is Anna actually not eating or is food being sent to her secretly to eat in private? That is Lib’s job: To not leave Anna alone for a moment to discover the truth.

There is an answer to this question, and once we have the answer, there is still more book to read! It becomes more than what the answer is as Lib tries to save Anna’s life.

This book is very well written. Well done Emma Donoghue! You can sense the tension between Lib, Anna’s family, and doctor. The book takes place in the year 1859 and much of the tension is that of the Irish vs English. You also see the honest faith of a child that Anna has, but is it misguided? You must read the book to find out! There is definitely more to this novel than you think going into it.

Audiobook review:
I listened to the audiobook version of The Wonder. I don’t usually write a review for the audiobook, but I feel I need to in this case. The narrator is Kate Lock. I had difficulty understanding some of the characters as the Irish accents were too strong for me. There were times when the mother was yelling- and I could not understand what was said. Also, at times I could not understand Anna. Lib is the main character in the novel, I had no problems understanding her. There were other characters where I had this problem as well.

I know with this difficulty that I missed some of what happened in the novel, so I can not recommend the audio version. If you choose to read The Wonder, stay away from the audio version and read the book.

The Wonder is recommended!

The Wonder is a beautifully written novel that takes place in the mid-nineteenth century in a small Irish village. It’s easily one of my favorite books of 2016.

Nightingale trained English nurse, Lib Wright, is commissioned for a unique charge in Ireland. It is not until she arrives in the village of Athlone that it is revealed that she is there to observe 11-year old Anna O’Donnell who has not eaten for four months. Lib’s job is clear: she is to watch Anna at all times (she shares her shifts with a nun) and make note of whether or not Anna is eating. Needless to say, Lib is beyond skeptical about her young charge.

Visitors from around the world have flocked to see young Anna, as they believe that she is a miracle child who can cure ailments. Her doctor believes that if it can be proven that Anna doesn’t need to eat then others would no longer need food to exist. Anna herself believes that she has been chosen by God to exist on manna from heaven. Whereas, Lib thinks that the O’Donnell’s have created a scam to fleece Anna’s followers out of money and gifts.

As Lib and Anna spend time together, Lib realizes that there is more going on with Anna’s case than meets the eye. As Anna’s health begins to deteriorate, Lib moves from questioning the girl’s motives to trying to save her life.

Donoghue weaves in elements of religion and mysticism in this story, as well as plays off of the tension between the English and Irish. At times, I was reminded of Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Ultimately, this is a story about how desperation breeds hope. I highly recommend.

Is it a hoax? Or has the child been chosen by God for a divine purpose? A war-experienced English nurse (who has worked under Florence Nightingale) -- Lib -- is summoned to a rural Irish village to determine the truth. The subject in question is an 11-year-old girl named Anna. She proclaims to live solely on "manna from heaven," having not taken a bite of food in four months. Lib's assignment is to stay by Anna's side every minute of her shift and report her findings to a committee that hired her.

Not having read anything else by the author, I did not know what to expect. Donoghue's prose is sparse and succinct; her unexpected word choices impactful. She provides just enough to set the scene or describe the characters and their actions. She's a focused storyteller whose main strength is sculpting vivid characters through dialogue and action. Her characters are fully realized and alive, and they draw you into their world.

The early part of the book sets up the development of Lib and Anna's relationship that starts out cold and distant. Lib is skeptical, and feels confident she will expose the charade in matter of days. However, Lib is increasingly won over by the girl's innocence, intelligence, and her devotion, as misguided as Lib believes it is.

As a lead character, Lib occupies a bold presence. She is fearless, free-thinking, shrewd, just as much as she can be clumsy, tactless, blinkered by pride, judgmental, and brutish. Almost every attempt she makes to get others to aid her cause backfires on her. Lib's flaws make her a far more worthy person to center the story around, because she is real and relatable. Her struggles with those who hold all the power in this world: Anna's parents, the priest, and the physician, feel insurmountable and overwhelming. The outcome is never certain, as Lib often does not know the best path to take.

I would not want to spoil anything by even hinting at the outcome. The best thing I will say about this book is that the delicate, nuanced story is handled pitch perfect, and the deliberate pace ratchets up as it unravels. The only thing that surprised me (and this may only be me) is the ending was not what I was expecting. I was ready for a different outcome emotionally based on everything that preceded. This is not a criticism, but one of personal expectations.

Read the book, experience it for yourself. I am now a fan of Ms. Donoghue. I will go and read 'Room' next.

“The Wonder” is the newest novel by author Emma Donoghue. I could not wait to read this book, and once I met the author at a book signing event, my excitement grew even more.
“The Wonder” takes place in a small community in Ireland, in 1850, when a young, very Catholic (and yes, the “very” is important) eleven year old girl named Anna O’Connor appears to be surviving and thriving after more than four months without food. Attracting tourists and medical professionals alike, the country is abuzz with speculation- some say the girl is simply a Catholic miracle, a “chosen” one able to subsist on the love of God alone. Others, of the more rational sort, believe something is amiss, but no one has yet been able to identify the root cause. To put the matter to rest once and for all, a young nurse named Lib is hired to be Anna’s carer, to take over the responsibility of discovering whether the girl is a Saint or a fraud. Lib questions and accuses everyone involved in the young girl’s life- until the truth is finally discovered, leading to shocking consequences.
Donoghue continues to showcase her talent for historical fiction. Well-researched and poignant, this novel is one that will not easily be forgotten. The heart-wrenching subject matter, and the bravery and spirit of the protagonist Lib, are just some of the much beloved parts of this novel. In a time where women were seen and not heard, Lib breaks all stereotypes in order to defend herself and her young charge. As a reader, I went from suspecting young Anna, and assuming her to be the worst kind of manipulator, to being absolutely touched by the young girl’s innocence and faith. In fact, all the characters have powerful personalities (positive and negative) and they will all leave a mark.
This book is delightfully told, well-written, creative and emotionally charged. Donoghue draws a reader in from the beginning and does not let them go, creating a fabulous tale of family strife and desperation, grief and loss, and the powerful question of Faith. Highly recommended for fans of Donoghue’s “Frog Music”, and her other historical pieces. Not similar at all to “Room”, but definitely deserves praise in its own right.

THE WONDER by bestselling author Emma Donoghue is an example of an excellent piece of storytelling. Donoghue writes convincing and vivid historical fiction. I was drawn into the book right from the beginning. Having loved “THE ROOM”, I was eager to read this novel.

The setting for Emma Donoghue's novel is a small Irish village in the Irish Midlands after the end of the potato famine in Ireland in 1850s rural Ireland. The author really captures a wonderful sense of time and place. Emma Donoghue is so talented in immersing her readers.

Anna O’Donnell is an 11-year-old girl living in Ireland in the 1830’s. She claims not to have eaten food for the past four months and is living on manna from heaven. Religion plays an important presence in this story.

A local committee has hired Lib Wright, an English nurse trained by Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War, along with a Catholic nun, to watch Anna around the clock for two weeks to see if they can catch the girl sneaking food. Is this a hoax or a miracle? Or is it murder? Lib is determined to find out the truth, battling against superstition.

The supposedly “miracle" has reached the masses, and tourists flock in masses to the O'Donnell family's cabin hoping to witness this miracle. An international journalist is sent to cover the sensational story.

Lib believes firmly that this child must be being secretly fed. Receiving only spoonfuls of water a day, how can she have survived for this long?

“As Anna deteriorates, Lib finds herself responsible not just for the care of a child, but for getting to the root of why the child may actually be the victim of murder in slow motion.”

This is a beautifully written book and explores the power of religion over a young person’s mind. The bond that grows between Anna and her nurse is spectacular. This is one special book that took me to a different time and place for short while. During that time I was totally engrossed in this story and the characters.

Many thanks to Little, Brown and Company, NetGalley and to author Emma Donoghue for providing me with an advanced copy for reading and review.

Lib Wright is an English nurse who is sent to observe an 11 year old girl. Anna O’Donnell is a devout Irish Catholic who has claimed not to eat for the past few months. Convinced she is a miracle, tourists swarm her home for a glimpse of this chosen girl. Lib becomes involved when a few skeptics want to prove, one way or another, whether Anna and her family’s claims of not eating are true.

Lib is convinced that there is no possible way that Anna has survived for months without being sustained by food. She is determined to prove that Anna’s fasting is a hoax, but as more and more time elapses, she is unable to discover Anna’s story, one way or another.

My thoughts:

Every month, my family gets together and chooses which Book of the Month option we are going to choose to read together. I was thrilled to see this as an October option, because I adore Donoghue’s writing. She is a must read author for me, and although some of her books have been a little lackluster for me, I loved Room and Slammerkin so much that I can overlook her books that I didn’t love. My family quickly decided that this was the book they wanted to read for October. So what did we all think . . . ?

I actually probably liked it the least, which is not to say I disliked it. I thought it was an interesting story and I was intrigued to find out after I finished it that it was based on historical events, where there were actually girls known as “fasting girls”, who claimed they could live without food.

I think, for me, I just got a little bored with the setting. The entire story takes place in a small town, mostly in Anna’s own cottage. It just seemed like the pacing was a little to slow and there wasn’t much going on to distract me. So while I enjoyed the book, it certainly wasn’t my favorite from Donoghue. But it also wasn’t my least favorite.

Meanwhile, my mom absolutely loved it. She described it as the type of book you can’t put down. And my two sisters that read it with us also gave it high marks. So if you’ve noticed the buzz around this book, it is worth the read.

Eating is one of the keys to survival, and it's an enjoyable one at that. In Emma Donoghue's The Wonder, an eleven year old girl has unbelievably survived without eating for four months, causing people to wonder how that could possibly be.

Anna O'Donnell hasn't eaten anything since her eleventh birthday, four months ago, and a local committee has formed to find out if this is some sort of hoax or if the girl is truly living off of manna from heaven as she claims. With round the clock surveillance of Anna, nurse Lib Wright and Sister Michael observe the girl to see if she's covertly being fed by her family. As Lib documents Anna's vitals over her two week observance, she notices, with the aid of journalist William Byrne, that after the first six days, Anna's health drastically declines, causing Lib to fear for the girl's life and take action accordingly.

The narrative was enthralling and the writing was well crafted, with the mystery of how Anna has survived so long without food driving the reader to find out the truth. With not much happening in the way of plot, the story depends on intricate description of setting and character, which was thoroughly explored to create a small, well-developed world. I was a little disappointed in the happily ever after to conclude the story as it was both expected and a little too neat an ending, but it does fit with expectations of the Victorian tale being told.

The Wonder is the story of an English nurse sent to Ireland for an unusual task - she is to observe and verify whether or not a miracle is taking place in a small Irish village. Is a young Irish girl surviving without apparent nourishment? Her fellow observer is also a nurse but is an Irish Catholic nun - as an Irish Catholic, can she be truly neutral? She is Church of England and thus an outsider on many levels. There are barriers aplenty, social, religious, age-old socio-political, but she is known to be from an excellent nursing institution.

The child, the "wonder," is an enigma. She appears normal in many ways while exhibiting signs of less than normal nourishment in others. What is actually happening? In order to find out a fairly strict regimen is introduced to the family's life in their impoverished cottage. Here we see the culture clash up close, but also the development of grudging respect on both sides.

The novel delves deeply into village and family life of that era in Ireland, the real cultural divide between England and Ireland. Ultimately there is more than the "wonder" happening.

This is my first read from Donoghue and it was a very positive experience.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review

A fascinating and thought-provoking look into the power of faith, family dynamics, the hold that others can have on us, and our willingness to act when necessary.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Lib Wright, an English nurse sent to Ireland to sit watch on a child, Anna O'Donnell. It is claimed that Anna has eaten nothing since her eleventh birthday four months ago, yet the child remains vital. Many are taking it as a miracle, and make pilgrimages to see the girl. However, a committee made up of important men in the region want to ensure that this is not a hoax as they fear it would destroy the town's and even Ireland's reputation. Lib and another nurse (an Irish nun) are to take turns watching (but not caring for) the girl, make notes and report to the committee in two weeks time.

When the girl declines rapidly while under watch, Lib must decide whether to stand by or try to save the girl's life. Anna shares a dark secret with Lib, which breaks Lib's heart and commits her to try to intervene to bring the two week watch period to a halt before the child dies.

Well developed characters and a fascinating well thought out plot make this a brilliant follow-up to Ms. Donoghue's book "The Room". Entrancing and a wonderful read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown & Company publishers for allowing me to read and review this excellent book!

One thing you must make sure you do if you pick up this beautifully written book, is to read the author's notes at the end. It explains how she found the inspiration for this very interesting and at times quite disturbing piece of work.

Lib was trained as a nurse with Florence Nightingale during the Crimea War. She was trying to escape her past by running to this pursuit. She has accepted a new two week assignment where she believes she will be putting some of her skills to good use. She is sorely mistaken as she learns she will be more of a babysitter to eleven year old Anna.

Anna has been refusing to eat anything for the past several months. She has barely a few teaspoons of water a day and that is it. Her parents and the village are touting it as some kind of miracle that she is still alive.

Lib is brought in along with another nurse, a nun, to watch Anna and make sure this is not a hoax and she is receiving no sustenance.

As Lib unravels the truth behind Anna's behavior, she must decide if she will idly sit by and watch Anna parish or if she will do whatever she must to ensure Anna survives.

I loved the author's notes at the end and the history behind episodes like this. It was a very interesting subject to tackle and I thought the author did a great job.

The Wonder is a fiction novel about a young girl who voluntarily stopped eating, claiming that she hasn't eaten in four months. A mystery is entered into the story when a nurse is hired to watch over her. It is the nurse's job to find out how the girl is living without food. Is this a hoax?

The author, Emma Donoghue, also wrote Room, which is another excellent book.

THE WONDER SYNOPSIS

Anna, an eleven-year-old girl from a small Irish village, claims to have not eaten any food in the last four months. Her parents are convinced that the child can live without food. People outside of Anna's village are calling them fools for believing that the child is living without food.

Consequently, a committee was formed and decided to mount a watch over the child to determine if it is a hoax. Dr. Brearty, the O'Donnell's family physician, headed the committee. They wanted only the best nurse, so they sent for one that Florence Nightingale trained. They chose Lib Wright, who was young and widowed. Living in London, Lib had travel expenses paid to come to Ireland where the O'Donnell's reside. Another person hired for the watch was a Roman Catholic nun, Sister Michael. The parents insisted upon someone with the same religious denomination and nationality be one of the people hired. Both Sister Michael and the O'Donnell's live in Ireland.

Upon arriving, Lib found out that the family was poor. She had believed that they had money since they paid for all of her expenses while traveling from England to Ireland. The family wasn't spending their money, the committee was. The family lived in a small cabin. The maid in the O'Donnell household is Anna's cousin, Kitty. Malachy and Rosaleen O'Donnell had another child, a son named Pat, who died last November. Anna is their only child now.

Lib's length of employment was for a fortnight (14 days) to report if Anna ingests any food. However, she thought after hearing her duties that she would be back home in a few days. It wouldn't take that long to find out the hoax because surely the girl is getting food from somewhere. Lib's only job was to find out where Anna was obtaining her nourishment.

Lib and Sister Michael were alternating eight-hour shifts to watch Anna nonstop for two weeks. Lib just needs to figure out how the child is getting food secretly. She monitors her the entire time during her shift and insists that there be no visitors. She thought that it would only take one or two days to see how Anna was eating.

ANNA AND LIB

During her shift, Lib develops a friendship with Anna. All day long Anna recites prayers and sings hymns. The whole family, along with Sister Michael when she is there, prays on their knees several times a day. Since Lib isn't from the same religion, she is not aware of the traditions. From the very first day Lib met Anna, the child had recited the Dorothy prayer many times every day. Lib did not know the significance of it.

Anna tells Lib that she eats manna, which is sustaining her. Rosaleen's lack of worry about her daughter's health dumbfounded Lib. How can she allow her daughter to keep on fasting when it is diminishing her life? Her mother comes in to see Anna twice a day.

"Leave her be, Lib wanted to say. But she held her tongue while Rosaleen bent down to rouse her daughter with a long embrace and murmured prayers. Like something out of grand opera, the way she barged in to make a show of her maternal feelings twice a day.

COULD ANNA BE A MIRACLE CHILD?

The last thing Anna ate was the sacrament she had on her first Communion on her eleventh birthday. She was the talk of the town being the amazing girl that doesn't eat. Some people in the village says that it is a miracle that the girl can subsist on air.

Some people thought it was true that Anna was The Wonder and believed that it was a miracle that she could live on air. After reading articles in the paper about it, visitors came from around the world just to see her. Not everyone believed it, though. One doctor came to the house to do an exam on Anna to check for himself if it was true.

"It's Just as I suspected when I read about the case in the paper." The words sprayed from Standish's mouth. "In taking up this chit of a girl - and dignifying this charade by setting a formal watch - McBrearty's made himself a laughingstock. No, made this whole unfortunate nation a laughingstock!"

Turning away all visitors, including doctors and reporters from visiting Anna. Lib didn't want any interruptions because she needed to make sure no one secretly gave Anna food.

The time span for the whole book is two weeks, but every day is crucial. The reader needs to read until the very end to find out what happens.

MY REVIEW

After reading Room, I immediately wanted to read Emma Donoghue's other books. Room book review. Her stories are entertaining to read. The endings are unexpected, and yet so perfect.

The end of The Wonder emotes both sadness and joy to the reader. In the beginning, I thought the story was over, and I knew how it was going to end, so what could fill 200 more pages? I didn't want to put the book down. There was a lot of twists in the book, and I had no idea what was coming next. I would read again.

"The Wonder, a Novel," by Emma Donoghue
Eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell claims to have eaten nothing for four months. According to her parents and others in this ultra-religious village in central Ireland, she is being fed by “manna from heaven.”
Liz Wright, a British nurse who worked with Florence Nightingale in the Crimea, is employed to watch the girl for two weeks. Even before she arrives in the village, Liz is convinced it’s a hoax, perpetrated by the girl, her family, the village priest, and/or members of the community. Ireland has had no canonized saint since the 13th century: can this girl be the next? Can she bring tourists, and thus prosperity, to the region?
Since the 16th century, there have been at least 50 cases of “fasting girls,” young women who starved themselves, for religious or other reasons. Donoghue takes us into the home, and the bedroom, of one such pre-adolescent girl, and we, along with the nurse, watch what happens, until we can stand to watch no more.
I loved this nurse who never deviated from her assessment of what was happening, but who found herself so touched by the plight of Anna, she had to intervene.
This is such a fascinating book, I’m anxious to read non-fictional accounts of “fasting girls.” But I doubt that any non-fiction work can take us so close to reality as "The Wonder" does.

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a young friend who loved it. I had no idea what it was about and wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy it during the first half of the book. I think it might be offensive to someone with strong Catholic beliefs. The narrator of the story is the ultimate religious skeptic and makes no bones about her disbelief. Being a person of faith, although not Catholic, I was open to the idea of some sort of supernatural explanation for Anna's state of fasting throughout the first half of the book. And because of her negativity, it was difficult to like the narrator, Lib Wright. But as the book progressed, I found myself more and more drawn into the story and more sympathetic to Lib and Anna. I could not imagine how this story could be resolved. But the ending was indeed very satisfying.

I knew I was going to get this email, asking what I thought about this book. I've been thinking what I want to say so that I can tell a potential reader what I think, being a person who has read this without telling the reader anything about it. Let me preface this by saying that this is the first book I have read by Emma Donoghue and based on her writing style in this book I will probably try to read another book by her.

That said, I think this book is worth reading from beginning to end, not reading some, getting tired of it/bored and skipping to the end because you would miss much of the character development if you did that. Also, I think this is a book you want to read with someone or within a group because it's going to be a book that you want to talk with someone about but it's not one that after you have read it you will recommend to someone to read.

I have probably been pretty vague with my review but if you read the book, you will see why. I recommend if you made it to the end of my review that you probably should try reading the book. It has some interesting tidbits, especially about Ireland and the nurses that Florence Nightingale trained.

Lib Wright is a nurse in 1859, the very early days of nursing as a profession, who trained under the great Florence Nightingale herself. Lib accepts a two week contract to come to Ireland and observe an 11 year old girl, Anna, who is said to have eaten nothing for four months. The local community believe that they are witnessing a miracle, a saint in the making. However Lib is of the believe that it must be a hoax and it is her role to expose it.

This is a haunting story with a terrific sense of time and place. Lib's scientific background is a sharp contrast to the strong religious beliefs of the local villagers. (Even the local doctor is more inclined to believe in a miracle than in the evidence before his own eyes). However, after an intriguing start, it slows right down. I felt like it was going round in circles - Lib is skeptical, Anna is praying, Lib and Anna discuss religion, Lib is skeptical etc - until suddenly somewhere in the second half things start to come together and I was turning the pages as fast as I could to find out how it was all going to come together.

I listened to this book on Audible. I have nothing to add to the five-star reviews of Emma Donoghue's engaging book. But I would caution anyone buying the Audible version to listen to the audio sample before buying. I found the narration grating and if the book had not been so engrossing, I would have abandoned it. I would imagine the attributes I found annoying were the result of a conscious decision -- perhaps the mincing pace and over-pronunciation of every single word were a conscious choice for the POV character, an Englishwoman in 1850-ish. But the affectation was horribly distracting to me. I hope other listeners won't feel the same way. The book is so very much worth the read/listen.

Lib Wright has a new nursing assignment. She has been trained by Florence Nightengale, but now she has a patient that she is not meant to heal. She simply must watch and make sure the child, Anna, is truly "blessed" to no longer need food to survive, or to see if she is sneaking food somehow. Two women are constantly watching Anna. One is Lib and one is Sister Michael. Is this really God that is allowing Anna to survive by faith, or is this a hoax?

Emma Donoghue is definitely a gifted writer. She develops the story masterfully and keeps the reader wondering by slowly revealing what we need to know. How you feel about the various characters will evolve as the story unfolds as well. I know my opinions changed constantly of the people in Anna's life. Donoghue kept me wondering and worrying for this eleven-year-old girl the entire time. This is definitely a book worth checking out, and really makes you think of religion versus basic needs. Is religion enough?

** I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.**

I have never been drawn to Emma Donoghue's books - the subject matter that she chooses is not my idea of an enjoyable reading experience (Slammerkin and Room, for example). But I received this book as a gift and decided to give it a try. The story centers on a young girl in 19th-century Ireland who supposedly has had no food or drink other than a few drops of water daily for four months, and the efforts to determine if this is truth or fraud. The setting is bleak, dirty, dispiriting - and I was not drawn to the character of the nurse who is observing her. But the story pulled me in and while I was able to figure out one of the primary mysteries, the path that developed and evolved was a surprise to me, and there was a conclusion that I found satisfactory. I was glad I took a chance on it, so if you have reservations about the appeal of the story line, start reading and see where it takes you.

I enjoyed the book from the nursing standpoint!
I knew the Nightingale basics, like reducing infant maternal mortality. The germ theory of disease had not been developed -- but she was able to reduce the death rate in the hospitals in Crimea by ensuring cleanliness, safe water and good food for the patients.) She was also a suffragist and one of the first signers of a petition in support of suffrage put forward by her. Nightingale repeatedly inspired Lib and shook up hospitals simply by throwing the windows open to oxygenate sick rooms.
I was familiar with malnutrition, which was as accurate as the Irish Catholic history, but in reality the child would have died from dehydration.
The meanings here of "Wonder" include the caring and creativity of the nurse to supply life sustaining measures.

***I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. Opinions are ALWAYS 100% my own!***

WHAT I LIKED: This book is long, but it has so many layers. It only takes place over a period of a couple weeks, but the story was developed so slowly and beautifully that it didn’t feel rushed or drawn out. It was really refreshing to read such a well-written and thought out novel. I haven’t read Room: A Novel yet, but now I want to read it ASAP!

WHAT I DIDN’T: The only thing I can think of is that I was so frustrated with her doctor, but that just means that Donoghue did her job and made me feel something because of her character development. So this is a like masked in dislike.

I RECOMMEND THIS IF: You enjoy reading about bizarre medical cases or you’re interested in themes of faith/religion.

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. 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.

This book grabbed my attention from the onset. I totally cared for Lib rectitude, her precise use of language, her dedication to the job she was to perform. It also helped that she was very much in tune with the trumpery of the catholic church . The nun "observer" was an enigma hiding behind the tenets of her order , but she redeemed herself in the end . The ignorance of the girl family , her physician, and the complicity of the mother to cover up the real reason behind Anna descent into perdition make this writing a very contemporary theme as we witness the damages caused by extremism . The so called committee was of course a farce. Hate to use a worn out adage, but : " Follow the money " does unfortunately apply here !
Well done Emma.?

Wow! this is unlike any book I've ever read. It is wonderful and awful at the same time. Awful in subject, not in writing. The writing is brilliant. It is a story of religious fervor gone wrong, a shadowy secret, and one woman who has to risk everything to restore all that was damaged. This is my second book by Emma Donoghue after loving how she wrote Room - another appalling story in the hands of a masterful writer. I am definitely going to check out her backlist.

This is one of those books that is a slow burn. It's not fast paced. It's not going to keep you on your toes. And yet, it's so well done. And it does build steadily and suddenly it all catches up and you're overtaken with how wonderful it all is.

So atmospheric. Beautifully written. The characters in this novel feel like they are real in every way. I felt as if I was following the characters around and watching. The details of the world in that time period were outstanding. There are a great number of moral quandries in this novel that really made me think about things. Such a beautiful story. I highly recommend this one!

This book was dull and predictable. All of the characters were irritating, annoying, and unlikable, particularly Lib. There were also times, especially towards the end, where it seemed the focus was a bit lost and the characters acted out of character, as strange as that may sound. The writing was smooth and easy to read and I enjoyed the biting commentary and observations about religion, but little else. And I could see that oh-so-happy ending coming, which I really did not want to happen, but truthfully didn't actually care what happened to any of them.

The latest novel by Emma Donoghue titled, The Wonder, is set in a small village in the middle of Ireland in 1859. The title refers to Anna, a young girl who claims to have not eaten in four months. A nurse trained by Florence Nightingale, Lib Wright, has been summoned to join another nurse in a round-the-clock monitoring of Anna to observe her with the intention to either affirm her claim or uncover how she is acquiring nourishment. Readers join this watch with Lib, and like observing a roadside accident, I found I could not look away. Anna’s health deteriorates as Lib watches, and Donoghue draws us gradually toward understanding of Anna and her fasting. Donoghue’s prose is finely written, and in this novel she tells a great story. I loved the novel from beginning to end.

Rating: Five-star (I love it)

This book is an interesting examination of an Irish girl in the late 1800s who is feted as being able to survive while fasting. A team of nurses is hired to watch her around the clock to determine the veracity of her claim, one of those nurses having served with Florence Nightingale. The lives of the nurse and the patient become intertwined, making for a compelling juxtaposition of plot elements. Some parts are a little slow, but all in all an engaging read.

A haunting story about a English nurse who was hired to watch a young Irish girl who was looked on as a holy person because she supposedly was able to live without eating. Not only is what the nurse, who had worked with Florence Nightingale, discovered about the child, it is an interesting look from the British point of view at the Irish potato famine. Along with the mystery of the child’s miraculous survival is the interplay of Protestant and Roman Catholic views. You’ll finish reading the book with a lot to think about including how a child’s interaction and expectations of those around her have influence the child.

Lib is a nurse, a Nightingale, trained by Florence N. herself. She is living in London, when she’s called to Athlone, Ireland, smack dab in the middle of Ireland, for a two-week nursing task in a private capacity. She arrives at her housing, a room above a small grocery, after a lengthy and bumpy ride in a jaunting car. She can’t believe anything about this is right, the village is nothing more than a few haphazardly buildings huddled together, with a whitewashed building up from there, standing out with its pointed roof with a cross above.

The town seems mired in myth and fairytale; indeed fairies are much to blame for things gone wrong in this strange village, which Lib can’t quite comprehend. Rituals abound to prevent the fairies from their naughtiness.

Lib’s just settled down to eat when Dr. McBrearty shows up to fill her in one some of the details of her charge, Anna O’Donnell. The girl is eleven, and for four months, since her birthday, Anna has not taken any food, not eaten at all, since then, yet is still seemingly healthy. Anna has been brought there to watch over her, essentially to supervise and report if she does, in fact, not eat at all.

It goes against what she believes in, but as a nurse she’s to follow the doctor’s orders and to not interfere, merely document. Another nurse, a nun, stays with her the other shift during the day. The family has been, not surprisingly, accused of creating this hoax, what Lib believes is a hoax. As time goes by, Lib is taken with the girl, and yet still she believes firmly that this child must be being secretly fed. Receiving only spoonfuls of water a day, observed by herself and the Nun, how can she have survived for this long?

Anna exudes an aura of benevolence to all those around her, she is quietly accepting of both those who believe in her “miracle” and those who do not believe. Lib has learned to build emotional walls.

The details are where Donoghue shines in this historical, fictional tale that immerses you in the setting, the people and the time. The dirt roads, the countryside, every detail about life on the O’Donnell farm, and yes, even the fairies.

This does have a sense of mystery to it in that so many are trying to prove their side of Anna’s story. Is she surviving on air and water alone or is she somehow obtaining nourishment some other way? There are over 50 cases documented between the 16th and 20th century, of what were termed “Fasting Girls” in Europe and North America, even though that’s a lengthy period of time for only a relatively small number of cases, why would anyone choose to fast permanently?

Religion is ever present in this story, but it is neither in a positive or negative way. It’s simply the background of the story. There are some recitations of prayers by the girl, Anna, which I was aware of… and I am aware there are others who try to avoid overly-Christian novels, and others who avoid novels with too many “naughty words” - my opinion is that you are “safe” on both of those accounts.

Pub Date: 20 September 2016

Many thanks to Little, Brown and Company, NetGalley and to author Emma Donoghue for providing me with an advanced copy for reading and review.

The Wonder is a story that burns with questions of: ethics, combating final mysteries and even a dose of good discussion all waiting for the perfect hour to share with others. It can also be called an understated tale that may have some sinister “wonders” churning right below the surface. Whatever the final impression, it is sure to have the reader stop and think. I know this book had that effect on me but I’ll be the first to admit I had a completely different idea of what I would find in these pages when I first picked up my kindle.

Having read a few of Ms. Donoghue’s novels in the past, I was already familiar with her excellent eye for displaying certain elements and interest to reveal dark little-known morsels of history, and those fascinating points were quickly revealed and kept me coming back for alot more. With inspiration drawn from the real-life cases of “fasting girls” and the hints unveiled in the beginning with medical symptoms and observations, I honestly thought I knew the answers just like the central character Elizabeth “Lib” Wright but also like Nurse Wright I would slowly find the truth to everything went much deeper with complex mysteries and I really had no idea where or what this story was leading to. This unpredictable string of events and revelations of secrets had me racing to the final page to see how everything fit but I’m sad to say, the ending felt forced and somewhat awkward. Still I cannot deny the exceptional presented details that (up until the end) made this a realistic story that impressed me on many personal levels. As I said in the beginning, this is a story that is sure to get people talking and I’ve already recommended it to my fellow nurses. It has certainly stirred up some interesting late night conversations and continues to slowly reveal true natures of the spirit and mind.
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*I would like to thank Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and enjoy The Wonder

THE WONDER is the third book of Emma Donoghue's that I've read, with ROOM and THE SEALED LETTER being the other two. The subject of investigation, Anna, an eleven year old Irish girl in the 1850's who claims to have had no need for food for four months, is a complex character as is Lib, the English nurse who has been hired to investigate whether a hoax is being perpetrated or not. Other reviewers have done a good job of describing the issues involved here as well as the conflicts that both Anna and Lib deal with. I felt that the first half of the novel was especially repetitious but that it did pick up considerably toward the end.

I was excited to read The Wonder because there was so much press about it. While I did enjoy it, I found it fairly slow. My book club chose it for its January pick. Emma Donoghue raises some thought-provoking ideas that definitely provided us with a lot to discuss. I was glad that I read it but it would not be a book that I would recommend to others. Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Set in a small Irish village in the late 1800s, shortly after the potato famine, Lib, an English nurse who had worked with Florence Nightingale, has been hired to observe an 11 year old girl named Anna who has supposedly survived for months with no food. The Catholic church wants her fast observed and documented so they can be sure it is actually a miracle from God. The story, while a bit of a slow read at first, is fascinating and takes on many issues. Lib and another nurse, who is a nun, have been hired to observe only, but Lib soon realizes that her interference may be necessary. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.

The Wonder is a slow starter, but hang in there, reader, the best is yet to come I promise. Emma Donoghue developed a unique storyline. It was a simple topic and yet she layered the perspectives, the ethics and the truth, so that with each peeling away of a layer the horror below was revealed in increasingly painful snatches. At one point I had to stop reading because I could not see a palatable ending but I was not disappointed when I went back. This book consumed me, made me scream, made me cry and Boy! am I exhausted but this book will haunt me for days to come. BRAVO!!

Quick read. I enjoy historical fiction. This is set in Ireland. A new "Nightengale trained nurse' is called to observe a young girl who seems to live without eating. She quickly notices the girl is getting into dire straights and begins to think the observation may be killing her. The story unfolds from there, leaving a sad legacy and a more hopeful ending.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Let me start off by saying this book was not my cup of tea. For me it was very slow. Putting my personal preferences aside, this book is well written and many will find it interesting. Lib is nurse sent to an Irish village to figure out why Anna is not eating. Is she fasting or faking? That is the question that runs throughout the story. I had trouble with Lib. She is not a likable character. However, she is in a strange environment. I gave it the best shot I could , but I was really happy when I got to the end. I was ready to finish this story.

This beautifully written novel has an intriguing premise and the curious effect of making you question both your own beliefs and those of the author. Is this an attack on the Catholic Church as some reviewers have suggested or is it just a matter of putting a question of faith out there to make readers think? The characters are sharply drawn and the story carefully plotted. Not all of the novel is as fast paced as you might like- in fact it can feel quite slow in parts- but on the whole you will be glad to have read it. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

I thought this book was technically well written, but the main character was unlikeable and the story was ultimately boring. The majority of the narrative is taken up with Lib, the nurse, walking to and from Anna’s cottage and fixating on her pre-conceived notions of how ignorant and superstitious the Irish people are. This was a book club assignment – or I never would have finished it.

Anna is such a beautiful, devoted, faithful girl. I was anxious to see where her faith and devotion took her in the end. I was very disappointed with the hastily wrapped up ending, that did not seem to match with the little girl's well described character or at all realistic.
The harsh assumptions and opinions of the nurse seemed unfounded, as we weren't given a good basis for them. Unfortinately in the end, all this story left with me with was a bitter anti-Catholic message.

This first part of this book took way too long in setting up the description of the events that were to take place. Once the story got going, I have to say the author did a great job of describing the religious aspects and traditions of the Ireland of the past, that challenged me to wonder why this little girl and her family were taking part of this phenomenal "event".

Could a little girl just live on air and prayer, and why? As we uncover many secrets, speaking as a mom, I have to say it was an upsetting story.

As a lover of historical fiction, I was excited to happen upon this book at the library. I couldn't wait to read it, the story of Anna, a young, devout Irish Catholic girl, and Lib, a nurse trained by Florence Nightingale herself trying to solve the mystery of the child not eating yet surviving. Being a nurse and raised Irish Catholic myself, perhaps I am a little biased but despite those things, Ms. Donoghue wrote an engrossing tale that allows the reader to fully imagine in their minds the characters and events that follow, though never predicting what could come towards the end. That being said, the pace did got a bit slow around the middle but not so much that one loses interest. The ending is wonderful. Definitely worth reading; I couldn't put it down!

I read this book at the recommendation of two trusted reader-friends. I'm Catholic of Irish descent, so I understood the "culture" in which the story took place. However.... I did not enjoy wading through this book. Very repetitious and slow. I was encouraged to persevere, so I did...but it was not a pleasant experience. I'm glad the story line worked out in the end. But I want to read a book that entertains me on every page....not one that I have to "persevere through" just to see how it ended. Well written, and a clear depiction of the Irish Catholic culture in that era, but I wouldn't recommend.

Lib had a dizzying sense that time could fall into itself like the embers. That in these dim hints nothing had changed since the age of the Druids and nothing ever would. What was that line in the hymn they’d sung at Lib’s school? The night is dark, and I am far from home.

—Emma Donoghue, The Wonder

The Premise

Deep in the heart of Ireland in the mid 1800’s lives a marvel of God’s love, or so we are to believe. Anna O’Donnell, eleven years-old, has lived off manna from heaven, eating nothing for months, drawing tourists and journalists to her family’s small cabin.

In order to substantiate the claims, a committee of village citizens has hired professionals to keep watch on the girl for two weeks. They call in a nun and Lib Wright, on of Florence Nightingale’s original nurses from the Crimean War (known as Nightingales).

Lib is suspicious of the claims, an agnostic (or maybe atheist) and non-Catholic. She’s scientific in her approach to the girl, checking every corner of the room in search for hidden food, taking notes on the girl’s condition day in and day out. Sitting with her for hours at a time, Lib is unable to avoid conversations with Anna. She discovers a quick mind and a clever, sweet girl.

Finding herself up against superstitious and devoutly Catholic villagers, Lib also must fight the blinders put up by the committee and Anna’s own family. All need it to be a miracle, bringing in tourists to their small village. But beyond that, they are devout Catholics, interested in sainthood for Anna. Nearly everyone involved is unwilling to see Anna as she is: swollen with dropsy, jaundiced, and dying as her body starves.

The town doctor believes she may be a medical miracle as well, thinking that she may be turning into a sort of plant, capable of living on air alone. The committee wants her to be a miracle, a martyr, a saint, in order to save their town. (Interestingly, the only two that seem to show real doubts about this course is the town priest and the nun.)

Lib is sure Anna is a hoax, and that her family is keeping the collections left by tourists. She watches Anna with detachment, unable to understand the child’s utter devotion to her Church. But when Anna’s health starts to fail, and no one will lift a hand to help, Lib starts to realize that she has to do something.

But will it be enough, and will it be in time?

My Thoughts

I read a lot of books. And I get caught up in a large number of them. I fall for the characters, and then the stories. That’s the kind of reader I am.

And then I read a book with stark, beautiful prose. And I remember how much I love words. I remember that the best writers can tell a story with solid prose, rather than the flowery verbiage in many novels of late. I remember the words are the thing. With that kind of real, rugged prose, an author can do a better job of highlighting the characters and the story, taking the spotlight off the author’s ability to sprinkle a novel with their big, long descriptors.

Not that The Wonder is short on description. But it’s used to tell the story, not to draw attention to itself.

The story itself is completely gothic, using the committee and the town, their religion and superstitions, as the most horrific monsters of all. We watch as a group of zealots allow a young girl to waste away, and she continues to let it happen, because she’s a child and these people are supposed to love and protect her.

I could have done without the nod to romance for the cold-hearted Lib, although it did give us a chance to understand why she is so cold-hearted. And it does work — as she thaws concerning Anna, so she is drawn to the handsome journalist.

The other sticking point for me is Donoghue use of a convenient device for Anna’s fervor, making it just a little too pat and obvious. I really wish she would have stuck to the religious for Anna, making it a reaction to the very recent potato famine (which had ended just seven years earlier), the death of her brother from unknown maladies, and her love for God.

But, as I said, the prose is perfect and beautiful, highlighting the strong story and characters rather than hiding the flaws behind ornate wordage. The Wonder is historical fiction, psychological thriller, and gothic novel all rolled into one well-written bag of goodness.

4.5 stars.

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue is very highly recommended historical fiction novel set in rural Ireland, 1859.

Lib Wright, a nurse who trained under Florence Nightingale, is hired to travel to Athlone, Ireland. There she is to simply keep watch over eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell. Anna has reportedly not eaten in four months, and yet is supposedly healthy. Lib and another nurse, who happens to be a nun, have been hired by Dr. McBrearty, the family's physician, and a local committee to provide twenty-four hour surveillance of Anna for a period of two weeks. They are to record if Anna is eating or drinking anything without discussing their observations with each other. Clearly they are present to determine if Anna's claim is a hoax or a miracle.

It is evident to Lib that Anna, a devout Catholic girl who claims to be living off manna from heaven, is not entirely healthy. It is also clear that the doctor wants to believe Anna is the embodiment of a miracle. Tourists are already coming to the family's cabin to see the Wonder. Lib records Anna's vital statistics and notices that since the nurses arrival, Anna's health is deteriorating. Anna claims she has not eaten, but what could be the logical explanation for her survival for four months and is the presence of the nurses going to mean her death? And why are all the adults in Anna's life willing to let her kill herself by starvation in deference to some idea of piety and reverence?

Lib becomes more and more attached to Anna, while at the same time she tries to find a logical answer to the girl's situation. Obviously something is going to have to happen, some break-through is going to have to be made or Anna will die.

The inspiration for Donoghue's novel is based on the true cases of nearly 50 "Fasting Girls" from the 16th to the 20th centuries who were from the British Isles, western Europe, and North America. She also includes detailed descriptions of period customs and social behavior of the characters, including the overwhelming prevalence of Catholicism in the daily routine of Anna and the O'Donnell family. Lib must negotiate this unknown culture and decode the words and language they are using. Language and the meaning of words is an essential element in The Wonder. In fact, each chapter opens with a single word, followed by the multiple definitions for the usage of the word. It is obvious that unless the usage of a word is understood by all parties, miscommunications can/will occur.

This is an incredibly well-written, compelling novel that will grip you and hold you immersed in the time period and setting until the end. The suspense and the tension deepen slowly, incrementally, and are amplified as the narrative progresses and more information is revealed. There is a claustrophobic atmosphere in the tightly clannish society and the small cottage set in the isolated country side. Anna's behavior is constricted; she is following societal rules above and beyond normal expectations. In sharp contrast, Lib has broken societal rules in her training with Florence Nightingale and her out outspokenness. I loved the ending.
Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue immersed me into another world, an almost claustophobic closed society, reduced to one room, one patient, and little outside interaction.

An English nurse trained under Florence Nightengale during the Crimean War, Lib is hired for an unusual two week position in a poor Irish village. The village still bears the scars of the potato famine, windowless and deserted cottages ovegrown with vegetation, hungry women and children huddled in the rain.

Lib's scientific training is to be utilized in objective observation of eleven-year-old Anna who stopped eating on her last birthday four months previous. A committee has hired Lib and a nun to watch Anna every minute, in shifts, to verify that the child truly has not been eating.

The villagers are ardent Roman Catholics who along with their prayers and rosary continue to adher to local folklore, setting out saucers of milk for the wee folk. Anna's physician hopes he is watching a new level of human evolution that portends the end of starvation and war. Others believe they are watching a miracle. Very few recognize the signs of starvation.

Lib doubts what she is seeing, knows the girl must be participating in a hoax. An unbeliever, Lib distains the pious Catholicism of Anna and her community. As Lib watches Anna decline in bodily health she comes to see the girl's deep intelligence and learns that the child is willing to die if it means she can save her deceased brother from purgatory.

Good nurses follow rules, but the best know when to break them Lib decides, and with the help of
Byrne, a newsman lured by a story, she decides to break all the rules she has been taught, becoming personally involved with Anna and altering her fate. To do nothing is the deadliest sin, Byrne had told her.

This is the first time I have read Donoghue. It is a masterfully crafted novel. The novel has subtle details that place it in time. The Crimea War and Great Potato Famine are recently past. Lib reads Charles Dicken's magazine All the Year Round and George Eliot's Adam Bede. Byrne's history as a journalist reminds that while Ireland starved Parliment stood silent. Lib is allowed to slowly grow in her understanding of what she is observing, struggling with issues of faith and the nature of her professional role. Perhaps the ending is too neat, but it is gratifying wishfullfillment. We come to admire Lib and Anna captures our hearts.

The story was inspired by the stories of Fasting Girls over the centuries.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

4.5* Who would not wonder about a young child at the age of 11 years who will not eat and hasn’t for some four months, but seems to be flourishing without eating so much as a crumb. Born into the religious O’Donnell family, they all rally around the girl and believe her to be thriving by the special providence of the Almighty. The local Doctor McBrearty residing in the tiny town of Athlone, Ireland knows the family well and is unhappy with the newspapers reports not believing the story by implying it is nothing more than a hoax. He decides a committee should be formed and have the truth brought to light no matter what is uncovered. Subsequently two nurses are hired for this responsibility, to monitor Anna O’Donnell closely over a two week period by confirming not a morsel of food goes past her lips and she is indeed a miracle. A nun, Sister Michael from a nearby village with nursing skills, and a Nightingale trained Nurse from England Lib Wright, are hired for this rather extraordinary and unusual assignment. When Lib meets with Anna she is immediately suspicious of her claim to only sip water, and that most likely her family have been feeding her on the sly. It doesn’t take long for Lib to decide she doesn’t require two weeks to observe Anna but only a night to expose the pitiful swindle and be on her way back to England away from the smells of animal dung and burning peat that greeted her upon her arrival. She adamantly believes it to be nothing more than a well planned deception. Lib Wright is a fascinating character as her inner thoughts are provided throughout the chapters with a good deal of reflection and pondering about her task at hand and those involved. Author, Emma Donoghue has written a captivating, mesmerizing novel which was engaging and is a particularly unique story. Highly recommended.

** Thank you to Publisher Little Brown and Company, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. **

Anna O’Donnell is an 11-year-old girl living in Ireland in the 1830’s. She claims not to have eaten food for the past four months and is living on manna from heaven. A local committee has hired Lib Wright, an English nurse trained by Florence Nightingale, along with a Catholic nun, to watch Anna 24 hours a day for two weeks to see if they can catch the girl sneaking food. Is this a hoax or a miracle? Or is it murder? Lib is determined to find out as she fights against superstition.

This is a beautifully written book and explores the power of religion over a young person’s mind. I found it to be completely spellbinding and fascinating. The depth of the bond that grows between little Anna and her nurse is breathtaking. Ms. Donoghue has pitted love against evil, doubt against faith, and has come up with a powerful and heart wrenching psychological thriller that takes a scathing look into the lives and beliefs of the Irish following the potato famine.

Highly recommended. This has surpassed “Room” as my favorite Donoghue book.

I won a copy of the book through Goodreads with the understanding that I would give an honest review in return.

This was a real page-turner that I could not put down. The central "mystery" and characters were compelling and by the end, I was desperate to know how it would all be resolved. The period Catholic details were just right and the writing was incredible. I didn't think the story needed a romance element to work, but it didn't take over the book and that's a minor quibble. This is one that you'll want to re-read when you know all the answers, to see it all happen again.

In THE WONDER by Emma Donoghue we are introduced to Lib Wright, an English nurse who served in the Crimea under Florence Nightingale, as she journeys to a tiny village in the middle of 19th century Ireland. At the outset she is unaware of the identity of the patient she has been summoned to care for and her initial attitude of smug superiority is later replaced by one of suspicion when she learns that her “patient” is an 11 year old girl named Anna O’Donnell whose family insists that she has not had a bite to eat in over four months. Further inquiry discloses that her services are being paid for by a committee of town elders who seek to substantiate the claim being made.

Donoghue has built her novel on documented stories of “fasting girls” of the Victorian era who claimed to survive not by consuming food, but by their religious belief and the help of the almighty. Donoghue’s fasting girl Anna has supposedly survived on nothing but water and prayer and Lib has been charged with validating or debunking these allegations.

While the story does take a slight detour into soap opera territory, it is the other questions it addresses that drives the narrative- - - questions of morality, love, faith, religious rituals and the power or damage of spirituality to heal or destroy. This ingeniously imagined tale is not an attack on religion nor is it meant to intentionally upset anyone or be irreverent but rather to provide an overview of a time in history when war, famine and political tensions coupled with just the challenge of daily survival tested people’s values and beliefs.

In the late 1850s, Lib Wright, a nurse, accepts a two-week position monitoring a poor 11-year-old girl, Anna, living in rural Ireland. She has been hired because she is a “Nightingale,” as nurses who worked for Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War were known, and has been trained to value the importance of cleanliness, sanitation and factual record-keeping as well as compassion when caring for a patient. Although Lib is unaware of the situation until her arrival, Anna has apparently not eaten or drunk anything but daily teaspoons of water for the previous 4 months, which is miraculous to the pious Catholics in the area. Lib and a nursing nun have been hired to confirm that Anna indeed is receiving no nourishment.

Lib is sure that this miracle is instead a hoax, perpetrated by the girl, her family, the parish priest, the doctor - someone! The book is, therefore, a mystery: is this a religious mystery or an everyday one? Is Anna surviving on manna from heaven or is she a fraud? Page by page, Emma Donoghue masterfully and compellingly explores the contours of religious and rational belief as Lib examines the history, motivations and actions of the child and her community.

Emma Donoghue’s writing is so skillful, elegant and precise that I barely paid attention to the epistemological nature of the book while reading it. I was caught up the author’s evocation of life in mid-19th century rural Ireland and in the thrill of the hunt to solve the mystery of Anna’s refusal to eat. The relationship between Lib and Anna is at the heart of the book and is the most fully realized. Their growing love of and trust in each other and Lib’s determination that Anna not die of starvation propel the story to its unexpected, but satisfying, conclusion.

This is not an easy book to read for anyone, but most particularly, I suspect, for those who have children. A book centering on the likely death of a child is not one I would normally have chosen to read; it’s just too emotionally searing. Yet, I recommend this book highly. As with all great books, as raw my emotions were as I read the book, I felt renewed when I finished.

** Full disclosure: I received a free advance copy through Goodreads.. **

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 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.

This book is set in mid 1850s Ireland, in a very small town before the potato harvest; meaning most of the folks are hungry and without enough to eat. They are always poor and looking for a way to solve that problem. A Nightingale-trained Nurse is recruited from London for a two-week duty, she assumes because she is highly skilled. In reality it is because she is a high value observer and is sought to validate an odd claim: an 11-year old girl apparently has not eaten in 4 months and shows no signs of starvation. This small town hopes to make money off of this Wonder of a girl who doesn't eat. She will be their religious icon, their Grotto, their call to Believers. Even if she dies the merchandising options are plentiful. The child's family has a collection box outside their home for visitors to contribute in exchange for a few words of prayer with their amazing daughter.

Despite the historic accuracy, there is something so very modern about this tale. The anorexia, the religious affiliation and the magnetic pull the entire enterprise seems to exert on the rich and barely faithful. But this tale is situated in a small, dark and cloistered hovel filled with damp peat. The nurse and the child remain in the one room day after day waiting for something to happen. The author paints word pictures exquisitely. The ending is worth the wait.

I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Well the subject matter of a girl who is fasting and a train to nurse who is watching her does not seem very interesting, the story is very compelling. The characters are relatively few, so you get to know them and understand their thought processes. There are numerous moral struggles where each party feels he or she has the Highground, and simply cannot be made to see the other's point of view. Not unlike many of the struggles we see today.

I was intrigued by the story line when I read the review for this book, so I purchased it for our library's fiction collection. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish it myself and found it to be extremely taxing. I did skip through to the end of the book after dutifully reading the first third of the book without becoming engaged...and the ending was somewhat satisfactory and also a bit predictable. Not a book I would recommend highly.

What a horrible story! I see enough sad, horrible stories on the news; I don't want to read them. I literally fell asleep three times when I first started the book because it starts out sooooo slowly. I admit it gets more readable as you go, but it's just very depressing. I didn't care for it at all.

It took a while for me to like the book (it was quite slow in the middle), but as the story gathered momentum, I was drawn into the world of the devoutly-religious Irish, the skeptic of the medical community, and a lovely story between a young girl and her nurse. Donoghue painted a vivid picture of Ireland and mastered the slang of the people (slavey, girleen, colleen). The twists were unexpected and refreshing...will read more of her works.

3.8 stars.

This is the first book I have read by Ms. Donoghue. The plot was slow to begin with. However, my interest began to perk at around page 80-100. The last 90 or so pages moved quicker, and that is around where my interest peaked. I wasn't disappointed by the ending, and I am very glad I got over my intense dislike for Lib. The writing was very good and enriched my vocabulary.

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 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.

"Everybody was a repository of secrets" in The Wonder.

After enjoying the Room movie, I decided to request this novel through NetGalley. While The Wonder is a fast read, it frustrated me in the same way that Jodi Picoult's Plain Truth did. Anna says she hasn't eaten anything but "manna from heaven" since her eleventh birthday four months ago, just as Plain Truth's Kate denies that she even had a baby. Both of these delusions stem from extreme religious dedication -- Anna's being a distorted view of Roman Catholicism that surfaced because of incidents and statements revealed later in the story. You get angry just as Lib / Nurse Wright does as she watches this eleven-year-old child wither away while others stand in awe at the ability they think she possesses.

By the end of the story, you're fighting for this child's welfare and angry at the ignorance religious leaders and family members have shown throughout Lib's brief stay in Ireland. The ending Donoghue constructed doesn't disappoint and you'll be impressed that everything worked out the way it did.

PUBLICATION DATE: September 20, 2016

PUBLISHER:Little, Brown

GENRE: Historical Fiction

When I heard Emma Donoghue had a new book coming out, I knew I had to read it. THE WONDER, set just after the potato famine in the mid-late 1800s is not to be compared to Donoghue's Internatonal Bestseller, ROOM, because the story, though gorgeously told and just as disturbing (more subtle), is different in terms of pacing and style. BUT it's AMAZING! I so loved THE WONDER.

REVIEW: It might have been the time period I was drawn to, or the fact that Lib Wright, the nurse in the book is a Nightingale-trained nurse, or maybe it was the fact that this book takes place in a small Irish Village, but Donoghue had me in the palm of her hand while reading THE WONDER. For months (four, in fact), little redheaded Anna O'Donnell, 11 years has insisted she no longer needs food; she can live from manna from heaven.

Lib Wright is commissioned from England to set watch to make sure Anna is legitimate, isn't being slipped food, her body is in good working order, etc. Yet, Lib is suspicious. THE WONDER is completely atmospheric, the gray rubble of Ireland coming to life, the short dreary days spent at Anna's bedside, the traipsing through craggy roads...it's all there and it's all amazing.

But there were times I felt the narrative moved a bit slow--though it could have very well been intentional on Donoghue's part--Ireland, especially at that time in history, was a more languid landscape; her writing style in THE WONDER is evocative of this.

But things deepen and darken, leaving more questions than answers, and take on a unique twist, I didn't exactly see coming, but read closely because the set-up is there and it's done oh-so-masterfully.

Folks who love Wally Lamb will also love this moving story encompassing Irish folklore/superstition, Catholicism, and abuse.

I'm grateful to the publisher for the review copy.

I would like to thank Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

The Wonder is a beautifully written book that explores the power of religion and how faith can prevent someone from seeing the truth of what's going on right before their eyes. It's a slow moving story that's full of atmosphere and superstition. It was disturbing and hard to read at times and created a slow drawn out feeling of dread as the story progressed. I had to put it down every so often to collect my thoughts and distance myself from what was occurring. I can't really go into why I had to do this as that would mean giving spoilers, but I can say that I felt the same anger and frustrations as the main character and I found myself getting angry at some of the choices and decisions that were being made due to religious beliefs.

I have to admit, I struggled a bit in the beginning. I couldn't connect to the main character, I didn't like her, but there is a point around the 30% mark where that all changes and you start to understand her more and get a bit more of her background. At that point I began to like her, my whole reading experience changed and I was really drawn into the story.

Like I said before it's a slow burner and generally I'm not too keen on slow moving stories but it very much suited the storyline. The events take place over a two week period and it feels like the longest two weeks in history. That may sound like a bad thing, but it enhances the feeling of dread and helplessness of the situation.

The only things I had a problem with was how unaware the main character was at realising that the situation was going downhill, she should have picked up on it much sooner. I also felt the ending was a bit too movie-esque.

Pretty good quick read, well written but nothing special. I'm surprised at the reviews with 5 stars--I don't feel it merits the highest acclaim.The story was utterly predictable, neither fresh or thought provoking.

It was a pretty disturbing book. It kept my interest throughout but I felt the story dragged most of the way and then rushed the ending. I would've liked to have known more of what happened after. I disliked most of the characters other than Anna & Lib. Anna's family members came across as very cold and uncaring.

Fascinating is the first word that comes to my mind about The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. The Wonder takes place in the mid 1800's and is very much different than Ms Donoghue's Room. The Wonder starts a little slow as the plot is laid out for the reader but picks up about a quarter of the way in, making it well worth the wait.

The Wonder is truly a wonder of a book, filled with moral complexities and haunting in its premise.

Lib, an English nurse trained by the legendary Florence Nightingale, is tapped for a most unusual assignment: to stand guard over an 11-year-old Irish girl named Anna, who appears to be existing without eating a morsel of food. A town committee has been formed to monitor the girl to make sure that she is the “real deal” and is not being fed surreptiously. Lib and a local nun trade 8-hour shifts and indeed, neither of them are able to detect if a hoax is being pulled off.

Lib has her own backstory, which makes her susceptible to the plight of the continually weakening Anna, who fervently spouts Scripture and seems to welcome her own martyring. The question becomes: is the religion filling Anna’s head with morbid nonsense or has she mistaken morbid nonsense for true religion? Is Anna being used by those who claim to love her most for the glory of religion? And is Anna, indeed, a wonder of faith…or, is every body its own marvel, a wonder of creation?

By pitting a worldly and educated skeptic against the superstitions of an ignorant town, Emma Donaghue creates a tension-filled narrative that just about breaks the reader’s heart. As Lib stands by, watching as the town’s protectors – from parents to doctors to priests – fail the little girl, the question arises: what sins do we commit for a twisted sense of religion? This will surely make my Best of 2016 list.

I'm sick and tired of authors - both male and female - using women being sexually assaulted as a cheap way to move the plot forward without having to come up with original ideas.

The second half moved faster than the first, thank goodness.

The premise of this book was so interesting, I was excited after Room to have a long plane trip to enjoy this novel. Unfortunately the book does not live up to its premise. The main characters Lib and Anna are very one dimensional and are just not relatable like the characters in Room. Also the book is totally predictable. You guess the plot twists at the moment they are revealed on the page, so when much later in the book, each "twist" is revealed, none of them comes as a surprise at all. The end is very unrealistic. I found the whole book quite boring and I was not turning each page with excited anticipation for what comes next like in Room.
It was a great concept for a book but I just don't think it was executed anywhere near as well as it could have been. I would never recommend this book to anyone as a book they, "must read!"

Found it mostly grim, boring and repetitive. Then I guess the ending is supposed to redeem it, but for me it was just laughable. As if the author were saying, ok, you read through this awful book, but I'll give you a sappy happy ending so everyone will feel good and say how wonderful this book was.

I had a lot of difficulty getting into this book. About 25% of the way in--after having struggled for a week to get even that far, a friend disclosed the story-line and told me how it ended (I had not intended to finish it). The knowledge of where the story was going gave me enough interest to finish the book. It was okay but I am not a big fan of historical fiction so it was never going to be my favorite book.

This book has received a Discovering Diamonds Review:
Helen Hollick
founder #DDRevs

" ...a cleverly constructed novel that explores the human desire to seek solace in the miraculous when faced with suffering ....As the tension built I found it difficult to put the book down."

Like in her other book, Room, Donoghue has a way of making young children far wiser than their years. The pace of this book was a little too slow for me and the point she makes about blind religious adherence over the top but might not bother other readers. An ok read.

I got this book after seeing the good reviews. While I’ll say it’s very well written, the authenticity of the verbage and terminology were unfamiliar to me which made it a slow read (personal problem) but overall storyline was slow and dense and difficult to get through. The overall plot was frustrating (personal opinion) and the ending left me with a big question mark; “I read all that for this?”

I would highly recommend this story. As soon as I picked it up, I wanted to keep reading it. The author did a fantastic job at painting a picture of where the events occurred, the landscape, the spirit grocery and the house in which the majority of the story took place. I pictured the house in my mind and Lib and Sister Michael taking watch over Anna. I loved the development of Lib's character and Sister Michael surprised me at the end. Although this took place in Ireland, the story reminded me of Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing. Perhaps it was the similarity of the religious themes/overtones. A must read!

I found over the first half of the book to be very repetitive. is she eating? Isn't she eating? Is it a hoax? Is it a miracle? Who is behind it? Observing the girl. Searching her room. Prayers and more prayers. Repeat above sequence over and over again Back and forth and back and forth from cottage to rooming house. Athough it did pick up interest and speed towards thr end, I found it unbelievable and unsatisfying overall . May have made a better short story

This novel is gorgeously written, incredibly timely, smart, and peopled with characters I wish I knew. It also tells one heck of a story. It reads like a thriller, paints setting as well as any novel I can name, and ends in a way at once shocking and satisfying. I don't know how she pulled it off, but I loved every minute of her doing it.

Wow - really hoodwinked! I didn't really know what this book was about : I had even forgotten why I put it on my to read list! My summary would be "religion poisons everything." But that is far too simplistic maybe. All I can say is wow! Definitely recommend!

Donahue writes the most extraordinary stories about children in trouble which are often dark and quirky. She can catch the flavor of a period of time and place and subculture which makes it very real to the reader. There are often surprises too, and mysteries. This was no exception.

This book reminded me of Keeping Faith . It's premise is about a young girl supposedly living off of manna from god . Is she or is this a hoax of some kind ? It's told thru the eyes of a nurse in the early 1900's in catholic catholic Ireland.

A slow start but an inspiring book on faith, betrayal, and love based on the Fasting Girls cases. It took me a while to get into this book, but it was worth the read. The characters where believable. The faith of Ann will inspire you. This was fasting and praying in its true form.

The story starts out slowly but halfway through begins to move. The characters are well developed and one can't help but to begin to dislike many.of the family and community trying to figure out how they allowed the tragedy.

This review pertains to the audio version. Hearing the voices of these characters provided a more visceral "Irish" feel than simply reading words on the page. The story did seem quite dragged out but when the conclusion arrived, the narration was deeply affecting.

I think Emma Donoghue is simply a really good writer. There was nothing about this book that would have interested me if anyone else was the writer. Donoghue made it a really interesting story. Her writing is first rate.

In an insular community, a devout child draws on her literalist faith to try to survive an impossible situation. But in a place where everyone holds secrets and agendas, is it "a miracle or murder?” An atheist nurse and Catholic journalist move heaven and hell, taking on the entire community, including the Church, for the sake of the child. It’s a meditation on faith and morality. I LOVED this book!

Give this book a chance. After the first twenty pages, I almost stopped reading it because I was finding it too slow and depressing, and I'm so happy I persevered. After I read the first half, I couldn't put it down. I'll be thinking about this book, and about Lib and Anna, for a long time.

I think this is a book you'll either love or hate. I loved it even though looking back I realize it's rather tedious and nothing much happens (and what does happen, happens slowly.) The author's writing drew me in and her sense of place and situation was so real that it stayed with me even when I wasn't reading. It's not as taut or as much of a nail-biter as Room, but it had the same captivating quality. It also raises interesting philosophical and moral issues.

I don't know how this book received such high ratings. It was painfully slow and very anti-climatic. I did not enjoy this book at all, and I never give up on a book, but I dreaded having to finish it. Such a shame because I enjoyed Room.

I really enjoyed this book and it's depiction of Ireland soon after the potato famine. The world is sharply drawn and immersive, told through the skeptical eyes of a Florence Nightingale trained nurse. As the nurse, Lib, tries to unravel the mystery of girl who seems to live on nothing, the story poses questions about religious fanaticism and the place of women in society.

OMG, where to start? I started reading this book excited about the premise and excited to read another book from Emma Donoghue, because I loved Room. First it was hard for me to tell what year frame this book took place. It had all the feelings of being in the 1700's or 1800's but I think it was supposed to be more recent than that. The main character Lib was so unlikable until the end of the book - every other page was her being suspicious of Anna, the girl who is starving herself. This story could have been told in half the pages - I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over and over again. Nothing suspenseful or thrilling about it at all.

An interesting story about a young girl who may be a living miracle is outed by a British nurse. The main characters are well drawn and compelling. The ending was a cheap card trick. I like donoghue's writing, and I like her range. She is gutsy, but her wrap up was clumsy and shallow. Could have been more nuanced with a deeper exploration of motive, character, and the role of class, religion, racism.

A very strange concept which after reading the acknowledgements was, unfortunately, based off a true concept that actually was a trend.

A little girl of 11 is starving (fasting) allowing herself only to drink several spoonfuls of water a day. She has been doing this for 4 months. And surprisingly, she is still alive and doing fairly well. A miracle or a hoax? Elizabeth (a trainee of Florence Nightingale) and Sister Michael have been called in by a committee to insure that the child is not being fed on the sly.

Elizabeth agrees to the job determined to find out who's been feeding the child. What she finds out is jaw dropping. Her techniques are over the top and a bit cumbersome to read through over and over again, but the story soon moves along and is worth reading through the redundancy. There are numerous prayers over and over again. However, the child is quoting these prayers over and over again. I allowed myself to skip over these (sorry) and that made the reading much more pleasant for me.

After finishing reading the book, I was glad that I did. Then after reading the acknowledgements, I was definitely glad that I kept with it. That's my opinion, you will have to form your own opinion. However, I think it's worth the time to read and take the time to do so.

Thanks Little, Brown and Company and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting historical fiction. I really had no idea about the subject. It is a little on the religious side, with scripture quotes. I am not catholic and was able to read it without getting "lost". Good for a book club or discussion group.

This story was so interesting - although I thought when I began reading that it would be too dark and heavy. The characters were complex and interesting and the storyline kept me turning the pages. A good read. Recommended.

I thought that the beginning was rather slow, unsure how there would be a whole book, but it eventually gained interest. Spoiler: I found it unbelievable that parents could be so unwilling to intervene for the benefit of their child.

There's no leprechauns in this Irish tale. This was my first time reading Emma Donoghue. The dark dark underbelly of 1850 rural Ireland comes to horrifying life. I look forward to reading more by this author.

This book is miserable from the first page to the last. A story about a girl who is refusing food, and slowly dying as a result. The whole story paints the Catholic Church and Irish population as uneducated, small minded believers in mystical rhetoric. As the reader you know exactly that the child is starving to death, and waiting for the stupidly portrayed characters to figure it out themselves is painstaking. This book is an embarrassment, and enraging to suffer through.

About 3/4ths of the book, I just kept wanting it to be over and could not believe the book was taking SO long to get going. After it was over, I could then see why she had to include all she included, all things I thought were just time fillers at the time turned out to be important. The very end made the book worthwhile. But one must have lots of patience with this book.

Emma has won me over with this book. I loved Room and Slammerkin but others had left me cold and struggling to get into them.
What a gem of a book this was....interesting look at life in Irelands midlands after the potato famine and an unique spin on the effects of religion on young children and within small communities.
A light read that was factual and engrossing

I was so moved by this novel. Describing the story itself would do no justice to the magic that unfolds while reading Donoghue's words. Her characters have stayed in my mind like real people--not fictitious ones from a book. I know them. I will never forget what happened to them.

ROOM was great. THE WONDER is even better. Donoghue is a fabulous storyteller!

starve herself to death, fearing that the nurse's good intentions will be her undoing, despising all of fine religious folk conspiring to create a miracle out of a little girl's tragedy. Beautifully rendered and heartbreaking.

I got the audiobook version of this. The narrator, Kate Lock, has everything to do with how much I've enjoyed The Wonder. Just 54 minutes to go, I'm going to be sad when I've finished it. Isn't that the way with some books? The last chapter and you want but at the same time don't want to finish it.

You'll be able to guess some of the major plot points before they happen, but it won't dampen the pleasure of reading this book. Thoroughly enjoyed this touching, somewhat infuriating story of a damaged little girl and the nurse who helps her.

So wrote Christopher Hitchins. In a world rife with pain and suffering, how is it possible that so many kneel in supplication before a blank wall? Why is it that those with the greatest need are willing to accept the irrational superstitious nonsense of all religious orthodoxy in spite of reason? Why not accept that life itself is the real miracle and our obligation is to make the most of the time we have here. That would mean not spending time conjuring up fairy tales that would only serve to divide us and cause more pain and suffering.

I thought the story was unique and well written. While a bit long, it was interesting enough to have me turning pages. Although it has a "happy" ending, I would think twice before recommending it to a Irish Catholic.