This novel, The Wonder (2016) is set in rural Ireland in the 1850s. There is no descriptions of daffodils under the trees, clouds in the sky or ravens in the belfry to begin this story. Donoghue jumps right in. The plot begins in the first sentence. Nurse Lib Wright is on a train to a new and very unusual job to the town of Athlone slap bang in the centre of Ireland, something the locals are very proud of.
I was not aware of the nature of the job when I started reading. Therefore, I’m not going to tell you, so you too will discover the strange job it is just like I and Nurse Lib did. I will say though that there is a lot of waiting and looking.
Mrs Lib Wright, a widow, is a very proud nurse since she was chosen and trained by the then and now iconic carer, Florence Nightingale. The parents, the maid, the doctor, the priest, a nun and a reporter complete the list of characters who all, as far as Nurse Lib is concerned, get in her way. The parents and maid because of their ignorance; the doctor and priest because they are not telling Nurse Lib everything she needs to know and Lib Wright needs to know a lot; the nun because she hardly says anything at all and the reporter because he can sniff a story. A story that Nurse Lib cannot tell.
Emma Donoghue, an Irish-Canadian writer, has written sixteen novels, the most famous of them is Room (2010) which was subsequently and successfully filmed in 2015. Donoghue received many awards for writing the screenplay and was nominated for an Oscar.
The most remarkable aspect of Donoghue’s writing here is that although, as I have said, the story revolves around a lot of waiting and looking, it’s a very engaging read. The theme is belief, whether you have it or not and Nurse Lib, although baptised as a protestant, has a very flimsy belief in Christianity. The various levels of belief of the other characters go quite a long way to supplying the story with tension and propulsion.
In 2022 The Wonder was filmed starring Florence Pugh and directed by Sebastián Lelio. Emma Donoghue contributed to the screenplay along with the director and Alice Birch. You can find it on Netflix.
One of the great attributes of fiction is that it can take you to worlds and people you would never meet in a million years. And they can be with you in your reading chair. I hope you will love this story-rich book as I did.
Michael K Freundt 