Book Review: The Wonder

Atmospheric. That's the word that comes to my mind after reading Emma Donoghue's hypnotic new novel The Wonder. The backdrop is 1859 Ireland. It's the month of August, just a few years after the country's Great Famine. Thousands have emigrated to the States seeking a better life, but a dull, rainy Irish village steeped in superstition bears witness to a wonder. Or a miracle, if you will. Anna O'Donnell has become a local saint (or an attraction) of sorts ever since she turned 11. She has survived without food for months on end and claims to be subsisting on manna from heaven. At first you think this is all a practical joke. A sham of the highest order. However the inconceivable seems to have have happened.

But is Anna really healthy as she insists she is? Or is she a delightful dying child? That's the situation Lib Wright finds herself in. A trained nurse by profession and hailing from England, her job had been to simply observe the girl for a period of two weeks. And it turns out to be easier said than done. As science and religious beliefs collide, she gets increasingly frustrated with her inability to get to the heart of the mystery, at the same time confronting an ethical dilemma, wondering whether to just do what she was meant to or take matters into her own hand and save the child's life. Disturbing and compelling from start to finish, The Wonder is a captivating tale you wouldn't want to miss.