Remarkably prescient and beautifully realised, this historical novel from the author of the seminal Room centres on a trio of female medics at the height of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.
Longlisted for the Polari Book Prize 2021
The old world dying on its feet, a new one struggling to be born ...
Dublin, 1918. In a country 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 an unfamiliar 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 the course of 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 tells an unforgettable and deeply moving story of love and loss.
From the bestselling author of The Wonder and Room.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781529046199
Number of pages: 304
Weight: 218 g
Dimensions: 196 x 129 x 25 mm
A visceral, harrowing, and revelatory vision of life, death, and love in a time of pandemic. This novel is stunning - Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven
Extraordinarily prescient - Daily Telegraph
The Pull of the Stars has a fever dream-like quality . . . about as moving and absorbing as it gets - Evening Standard
An immersive, unforgettable fever-dream of a novel - Times
A timely, exquisite and unputdownable reminder of love and compassion - Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
A story that is as timeless as it is urgent - New York Times
Fascinating and resonant - Sunday Times
Emma Donoghue is one of our greatest living prose stylists . . . a must-read novel - The Australian
Emma Donoghue’s best novel since Room - Metro
Eerily topical, Donoghue’s new novel reads like an episode of Call The Midwife set during a pandemic - Mail on Sunday
Moving, gripping and dazzlingly written - Stylist
It is rare for such a fast-paced story to be told so beautifully, and the writing is comical & exquisite - Irish Independent
Moving and memorable - Daily Mail
As strong and compelling as Jack in Room and Lib in The Wonder . . . a haunting and finely balanced literary novel - Sarah Moss, Guardian
One of the Emerald Isle’s most glittering literary lights, Donoghue here delivers a historical fiction turned timely reminder of human resilience - Oprah Magazine, 'Best Books of Summer 2020'
Enticingly written . . . a felicitous comment on our new times - The Irish Times
Remarkably prescient - Irish Independent
Rarely can a novel have been as prescient or as timely as The Pull of the Stars . . . the book flies by like a hospital shift, as drama follows crisis and victory chases tragedy in a never-ending cycle of suffering, joy and bodily fluids - Business Post
Certainly, the currency of The Pull of the Stars gives it a gripping edge, but at its heart this is a story about friendship, love and compassion in extraordinary times . . . It's an engrossing read. Donoghue's writing is visceral and her female characters strike a powerful chord of humanity that stays with you - Australian Women's Weekly
Donoghue offers vivid characters and a gripping portrait of a world beset by a pandemic and political uncertainty. A fascinating read in these difficult times. - Booklist
Donoghue’s searing tale . . . Her blunt prose and detailed, painstakingly researched medical descriptions do full justice to the reality of the pandemic and the poverty that helps fuel it. Donoghue’s evocation of the 1918 flu, and the valor it demands of health-care workers, will stay with readers - Publishers Weekly
[Julia and Bridie’s] relationship forms the emotional core of a story rich in swift, assured sketches of achingly human characters coping as best they can in extreme circumstances . . . Darkly compelling, illuminated by the light of compassion and tenderness: Donoghue’s best novel since Room - Kirkus (starred review)
Eerily reminiscent of our current global health crisis, The Pull of the Stars brings readers intimately close to a world where health care workers risk it all to keep their patients alive - Time
Emma Donoghue's latest is getting an early release, and it's clear to understand why: In 1918 at the height of the Great Flu in Ireland, sick, pregnant women are quarantined together in a hospital while a group of overworked nurses tries to navigate their patients through the darkness - Marie Claire
Timely, punchy and gripping - Evening Standard
A powerful, persistent, highly detailed and incredibly moving book that speaks through time. Donoghue is a marvel of a writer - Press Association
Emma Donoghue has a gift for taking details from the past and creating believable and absorbing worlds around them - The Tablet
Gripping . . . fans of Call The Midwife will relish the true-to-life accounts of labour - S Magazine
Although compassion, female solidarity and dedicated service are at the novel’s core, suffering and terrible conditions are front and centre . . . Donoghue [excels] in strong characterisation and a vivid sense of time and place - The Herald
What makes a good book? I ponder this every time I read a novel that I deem to be worthy of 5 stars. I think the answer is, a good book makes you think. The Pull of the Stars made me laugh, cry, grip the sofa in... More
"The human race settles on terms with every plague in the end." …. I hope this is true with recent events!!!!
Sadly, The Pull Of The Stars was not to my liking.
I loved Room by Emma and I was really...
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I was really looking forward to reading this having read ‘Room’, which I had mixed thoughts about. However, I really enjoyed this, if that’s an appropriate thing to say. There is some familiarity about it as not... More
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