The Pull of the Stars
Emma Donoghue
2020 Nominee
An Post Irish Book Awards: Eason Novel of the Year
23 July 2020
9781529046182Synopsis
Three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. The Pull of the Stars is the Sunday Times Bestseller from the acclaimed author of The Wonder and Room.
'An immersive, unforgettable fever-dream of a novel' – The Times
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.
Shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards -- Eason Novel of the Year
The Telegraph's 'Best Novels of 2020'
Guardian's 'Brilliant Books to Transport You This summer', 'Best Books of 2020'
Cosmopolitan's 'Best Books to Read this summer'
Stylist's 'Best summer Reads
A visceral, harrowing, and revelatory vision of life, death, and love in a time of pandemic. This novel is stunningEmily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven
The Pull of the Stars has a fever dream-like quality . . . as a tender record of humans coping as best they can with a pandemic, it’s about as moving and absorbing as it getsEvening Standard
A timely, exquisite and unputdownable reminder of love and compassion in the smallest room where women are giving birth and other women are dying and yet love - in all its joy and complexity - still finds a placeRachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
