THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE PULL OF THE STARS – EMMA DONOGHUE

I only read this book because it was on the BookTube Prize longlist, and it was one of the list that was available as an audiobook from my digital library. I started listening to it having no idea what I was getting into – I hadn’t even read the blurb. So you can imagine my initial reaction upon discovering that it’s about an influenza pandemic in Dublin in 1918, given our current situation. As soon as I realized what it was about, I had my doubts about whether I’d be able to stick with it. I decided to give it a chapter or two and see how it went. Well, I just never stopped listening.

This is the story of Julia Powers, a nurse working with pregnant women who also have the Spanish Flu. The hospital she works at is understaffed and full of very sick patients, and she is responsible for a room with a few patients. The story follows her over the course of a couple of days, and shows us the challenges she must face, the helplessness she feels and the difficult decisions that must be made. Through the patients she treats, we see the social situation of the city she works in at that time – abused wives, women who have had more children than their bodies can handle, and who have to work long hours at difficult jobs to barely manage to feed their children – nevermind themselves.

This is a story full of suffering – even death – but also of compassion, caring and resilience. It’s also full of love. Julia’s brother returned from the war with such deep trauma that he can no longer talk, but he finds ways to show her how much he loves her, and she returns that tenderness in kind. Julia herself cares deeply for each of her patients, and is determined to take care of them as best she can, or at least to ease their suffering.

Julia’s work life is not solo monotony, however. She is assigned a young helper, Bridie, who proves to be tough, unflappable and capable, despite having no training. And a new doctor appears, one who is the source of some controversy and gossip, but who does a much better job of caring for female patients than her male counterparts. These two women deeply affect Julia, both personally and professionally, and both allow for a sadly rare standard of care for her patients.

I ended up devouring this novel in as few sessions as I could manage. Donoghue’s writing is electric, addictive and confident. I had no trouble stepping into the world she built, nor connecting to her characters. The three women who carry this story are, in one way or another, each heroines. They’re from very different backgrounds, but they share particular character traits – they are each resilient, determined and very smart. I loved each for slightly different reasons, but fiercely.

I haven’t read any of Donoghue’s other work – I tried ROOM, and just didn’t have the emotional ability to handle the subject matter. But I can see what all the fuss is about. She is a wonderful writer, and supremely talented at creating a deep and lasting emotional connection between readers and the characters she has invented. I’m so glad to have given this book a try, and that I didn’t give up on it when I discovered the topic, though I was tempted!

I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a character-driven novel, if you enjoy historical fiction, or if you’re one of those readers who actually seeks out pandemic stories to read during a pandemic. It won’t disappoint, and if you’re an audiobook fan the narration will not disappoint. One of my best reading surprises of the year so far.

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 center, 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, carers 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. – Goodreads

Book Title: The Pull of the Stars
Author: Emma Donoghue
Series: No
Edition: Hardback/Audiobook
Published By: Picador
Released: July 21, 2020
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Illness, Pandemic, LGBTQIA+
Pages: 295
Date Read: March 21-23, 2021
Rating: 9/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.99/5 (41,115 ratings)
My BookTube Prize Ranking: 2nd out of 6