The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada
CBC Books: Best Canadian Fiction of 2020
Globe & Mail 100: Our Favourite Books of 2020
NOW Toronto 10 Best Books of 2020
Trillium Book Award
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2020

THE NEW #1 BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE WONDER AND ROOM

Dublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the great flu. A small world of work, risk, death and unlooked-for love, by the bestselling author of The Wonder and Room.

In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city centre, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders—Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.

In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, caregivers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.

In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.

“Donoghue, a first-rate historical novelist, skillfully weaves the era’s primitive medical understanding and social prejudices into her moving story of three caregivers with little but loving care to give.” - Maclean's

“Impeccably researched and immensely readable, as always with Donoghue.”  - Toronto Star

“Pandemic fiction and historical fiction find a home together in this eerily well-timed novel from the author of Room and The Wonder.”  - The Globe and Mail

Paperback, 300 pages

Born in Dublin in 1969, EMMA DONOGHUE is an Irish emigrant twice over: she spent eight years in Cambridge, England, before moving to Canada’s London, Ontario. She is best known for her novels, which range from the historical (The Wonder, Slammerkin, Life Mask, The Sealed Letter) to the contemporary (Akin, Stir-Fry, Hood, Landing). Her international bestseller Room was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and was a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth and Orange Prizes; her screen adaptation, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, was nominated for four Academy Awards.