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The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Historical fiction

The Wonder

by Emma Donoghue

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Quick take

At the heart of the novel is the question of faith... The kind of faith that allows you to take that ultimate leap into the future with no guarantee of where you might land.

Why I love it

Set in the midlands of Ireland in the late 1800s, Emma Donoghue's new novel is worlds away from her bestseller Room but just as perfect in capturing events that escalate, slowly and surely, to a heart-thumping crisis. And once again, Donoghue has created two heroines, a child and an adult, who must overcome terrible barriers—this time set by rules of society and of religion—to find their way home. I mean home in a figurative sense, as a place where safety and peace are offered, and where faith and reliance are rewarded. At the heart of the novel The Wonder is the question of faith—religious faith, faith in community, but most importantly, faith in self. The kind of faith that allows you to take that ultimate leap into the future with no guarantee of where you might land.

Lib Wright is a Florence Nightingale-trained nurse arrived back from the blood-soaked fields of the Crimea when she is hired to oversee a private patient. The commission is vague but well paid and Lib does not hesitate before taking on the new job. I had the feeling there was more to Lib's eagerness to travel away from London than just a paycheck—and I was right. When Lib arrives in the rural backwater, she finds a village in awe of a young girl —the wonder—who turns out to be Lib's patient. Can the girl, who reportedly hasn't required food for months, perform miracles?

The book had me rooting for miracles but not of the religious sort. When Lib understands that the secrets she has carried to Ireland parallel the secrets harbored by just about everybody in the small village, the strength—and the faith—that she has to summon to protect both herself and her patient will change her life, and the lives of all the villagers, forever.

Take the leap, and read this wonder of a book.

Member ratings (2,791)

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Historical fiction
View all
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
The Women
The Lion Women of Tehran
Husbands & Lovers
Shelterwood
A Thousand Times Before
All We Were Promised
Spitting Gold
The Seventh Veil of Salome
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
The Great Divide
The Storm We Made
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
Lessons in Chemistry
The Frozen River
What We Kept to Ourselves
Take My Hand
The Last Russian Doll
The First Ladies
The House Is On Fire
River Sing Me Home
The Attic Child
Malibu Rising
The Book of Longings
Hester
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
The Nightingale
Daisy Jones & The Six
The Lincoln Highway
The Secret Book of Flora Lea
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
The Circus Train
Peach Blossom Spring
Hang the Moon
Booth
The Good Left Undone
The Perishing
The Family
Things We Lost to the Water
The Spectacular
Still Life
Send for Me
The Magnolia Palace
The Bookbinder
China Room
This Tender Land
Atomic Love
All the Light We Cannot See
The Vanishing Half
Outlawed
The Four Winds
Independence
The Fountains of Silence
Libertie
Queen of Thieves
The Great Believers
The Clockmaker's Daughter
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Great Alone
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Rules of Civility
Circling the Sun
The Moor's Account
Jacqueline in Paris
Don't Cry for Me
The Christie Affair
Bloomsbury Girls
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Bronze Drum