My New Friend, "THE WONDER" by Emma Donoghue

 

A picture of me with my new friend, The Wonder, by Emma Donoghue

Hi. My name is Bobby Keniston, and my only friends are books. Don't believe me? Then maybe you should hire a nurse and a nun to come and watch me to see if it is true....

Which brings me to my new friend, The Wonder by Emma Donoghue, a piece of historical fiction that is also a real page turner. 

HOW I MET MY NEW FRIEND

Though I had read Emma Donoghue's brilliant novel Room and seen the film adaptation, I hadn't heard of The Wonder until I became a fan of a YouTube channel called Books and Things, hosted by Katie Lumsden, who recommended it. You can learn more about her YouTube channel by CLICKING HERE.

Fortunately, my home town library had a copy I was able to check out. 

ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

The Wonder is about a young, widowed nurse named Lib (short for Elizabeth) Wright, who was trained by Florence Nightengale in the Crimean War. The novel takes place half a decade after her service there, so in the Victorian period. She has been hired to go to Ireland to watch an 11-year-old girl named Anna O'Donnell, who claims to have taken no food for four months. Lib has been hired by the local physician to keep a constant watch on the girl (splitting watches with a nun named Sister Michael) to see if it is true that she is taking no nourishment. 

Lib figures the job will be easy. She immediately assumes the whole thing is a hoax and that the girl is somehow faking it. After all, no one can live without food for four months, can they? But things aren't so simple (they rarely are in books). Lib, no matter how skeptical she is, cannot find any traces of subterfuge or sneaking food. Anna is a bright, friendly girl, who carries a heavy sense of piety. People are coming from all around to see her, believing her to be a miracle. But Anna is humble, sincere, and, though she tries to keep a professional distance, Lib begins to care for the girl. 

The mystery is compelling. So is the final act of the book, when all is revealed, yet Donoghue somehow manages to still build suspense. 

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

Both Lib and Anna are wonderfully drawn characters, in no small part because neither is perfect. Lib can come across as a bit narrow-minded when it comes to the Irish, and admits her complete ignorance of the terrible horror that was the potato blight. Still, we see this world through her eyes, and she is very smart and resourceful. She becomes more and more complex the closer she feels toward Anna, and it is this closeness that draws the reader in as well. 

Anna is captivating. A sweet, calm, bright child. It is almost impossible to believe she could be faking the fast. She is so very devout. Like Lib, there are times when reading that I just wanted to should, "Eat! Please!"

There are some wonderful side characters who also populate this novel. A favorite of mine is Kitty, a servant or "slavey" or cousin in the house, who I like because she withholds a bit of mystery in herself, too. 

There is even a little romance, with an Irish journalist named William Byrne, who knows a thing or two about starvation, who spent his early years writing about it for the paper. As someone who has done quite a bit of research about Ireland during the terrible famine, I know how terrible it was, and how the English did nothing to stop it at the time. 

FINAL TAKEAWAYS

I recommend The Wonder, particularly for those who like historical fiction with a bit of mystery involved. It is a unique tale, well told. It shows that Emma Donoghue has a great deal of versatility, following up a contemporary, heartbreaking novel like Room with another brilliant, yet markedly different, novel like The Wonder.