The Pull of the Stars
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Average rating3.8
The Sunday Times bestseller and Richard & Judy Book Club Pick, from the acclaimed author of Room. The Pull of the Stars is set during three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. 'Moving, gripping and dazzlingly written' - Stylist 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. '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 'Reads like an episode of Call The Midwife set during a pandemic' - Mail on Sunday Guardian, Cosmopolitan and Telegraph's 'Books of the Year'
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Emma Donoghue is a relatively popular author at our library, but I've never read any of her books. The only exposure to her work was the movie Room, and I just assumed that was what every one of her books was like. I'm glad I finally took the time to read one of her books, and I'll be adding her other work to my to-read pile.
The Pull of the Stars takes place over three days, but packs in so much emotion and action in that short amount of time. I read the book in two sittings because I was drawn into Julia's little corner of the hospital. The Maternity/Fever ward seems like a terrible place to be, and I felt such a connection to all the characters. The protagonist, Nurse Julia Power, cares so much about each patient, and that emotion flows straight from the page.
The plot could have felt repetitive – one woman goes into labor, then another, then another, and so on – but it never did. There was urgency and emotion in every scene, and it kept me reading late into the night.
It's impossible not to think about the timeliness of this book, as well. The author's note addresses the fact that she started writing several years ago, but that the book's release was pushed up in light of our current pandemic. That led to wondering what sections of the book were written when. The discussions about the government's policy, politics, masks, and the staff and supplies shortages at the hospital all mirror what's happening today.
Donoghue is good at writing deep, compelling stories that feel quiet while at the same time encompassing so much drama.
