The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

The Wonder

by Emma Donoghue

An eleven-year-old girl stops eating, but remains miraculously alive and well. A nurse, sent to investigate whether she is a fraud, meets a journalist hungry for a story.

Set in the Irish Midlands in the 1850s, Emma Donoghue's The Wonder - inspired by numerous European and North American cases of 'fasting girls' between the sixteenth century and the twentieth - is a psychological thriller about a child's murder threatening to happen in slow motion before our eyes. Pitting all the seductions of fundamentalism against sense and love, it is a searing examination of what nourishes us, body and soul.

Reviewed by elvinagb on

4 of 5 stars

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I really liked this book but after having finished it last night I'm not really sure about the ending. It's one of those books where you are happily reading along and suddenly it's the end of the story and feels like the author wasn't quite sure how to finish.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 29 November, 2016: Finished reading
  • 29 November, 2016: Reviewed