The Wonder : A Novel
Author(s): Emma Donoghue
SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE FINALIST
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“Heartbreaking and transcendent.” —The New York Times
The latest masterpiece from the Man Booker Prize–shortlisted author of Room
In 1850s Ireland a village is baffled by young Anna O’Donnell’s fast. The girl appears to be thriving after months without food, and the story of this “wonder” has reached fever pitch. Tourists flock to the O’Donnell family’s cabin, and a journalist is sent to cover the sensational story. Enter Lib, an English nurse trained by Florence Nightingale, who is hired to keep watch over Anna for two weeks to determine whether or not the girl is a fraud. As Anna deteriorates, Lib finds herself responsible not just for the care of a child, but for getting to the root of why the girl may actually be the victim of murder in slow motion.
Written with all the spare and propulsive tension that made Room a bestseller, The Wonder is a tale of two strangers who will transform each other’s lives, a powerful psychological thriller and a story of love pitted against evil in its many masks.
“Beautifully moody with the taut pace of a thriller, The Wonder grapples with the potency of love, both human and divine.” —Chatelaine
Review(s):
“Room is that rarest of entities, an entirely original work of art. I mean it as the highest possible praise when I tell you that I can’t compare it to any other book. Suffice to say that it’s potent, darkly beautiful, and revelatory.”
“Remarkable . . . heartrending. . . . Both gripping and poignant, it’s a tribute to human resourcefulness and resilience and extremity, and a stirring portrait of a mother’s devotion.”
“Claustrophobic, controversial, brilliant . . . inventive, tense, and stringently intelligent.”
“A masterful, gorgeous, and wickedly well written book.
“Threading her stories together like a master weaver, Donoghue takes the reader deeper and deeper into the tapestry of Kissing The Witch. A masterful, gorgeous, and wickedly well written book.
“Sophisticated, provocative, and bracing. ”
“Thrilling and at moments palm-sweatingly harrowing.”
“Her contemporary thriller Room (2010) made the author an international bestseller, but this gripping tale offers a welcome reminder that her historical fiction is equally fine.”
“Donoghue’s literary prowess creeps like a dark, menacing fog across the pages.”
“Donoghue is back with a novel as gripping and intense as the popular Room. . . . The prose is so intensely alive, so cinematic that you truly can see the action unfolding before your eyes.”
Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada
ISBN: 9781443450034