In Dublin, 1918, a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, in “Donoghue’s best novel since Room” (Kirkus Reviews). In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined … terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders–Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.
In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over 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 once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.tars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.tars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.tars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.
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An superb novel that takes place during the 1918 Pandemic.
This is an intense read that focuses on two areas: the brutalities of childbirth and the brutalities of a pandemic. The author does not spare us in taking us right into the heart of these places. As in her other novels, I am awed by her mastery of novel writing to convey something vital about our world. Fasten your seat belt before you read!
This was a quick but very good read. If you like the BBC series “Call the Midwife” you will enjoy this book. In addition to learning about the Spanish Flu pandemic, you will also learn just how much medical science in regards to obstetrics has advanced in the past hundred years… some of the archaic procedures described are absolutely horrifying.
Captivating and terrifying! I found it hard to put this book down, reading it in only a few days (Though 5.5 hours in the ER certainly helped with that).
If you can’t handle labours gone wrong, stay away. Throw in multiple mothers on a Spanish flu maternity ward in 1918 and it just makes it all the worse. This was a slice of life novel. Just three days in the lives of three women doing their best – silent heroes.
The writing was riveting and tender, honest in a way that left me needing to put the book down for a few moments to catch my breath, only to dive right back into it minutes later. A great read!
A timely book, set in Dublin 1918 as the war and a pandemic cause havoc. Three women meet and over three days in an understaffed maternity virus ward, their lives are revealed. A well imagined tale with wonderful characters, a great story and a heartful reminder that life goes on amidst chaos and tragedy. Another delightful gem of a read from Emma Donoghue and a justifiable five-star rating.
About a nurse that goes the distant for her patients. Truly inspiring.
This was my first Emma Donoghue and it won’t be my last. Having written about the barbarities of childbirth practices myself in A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, this aspect of the book was fascinating to me. The story is also haunting in the way it evokes pandemic life one hundred years ago during the Spanish flu. Lyrical and lovely.
Fascinating story about nurses in a Dublin maternity ward during the 1918 flu pandemic.
Excellent
First, let me say that Emma Donoghue is one of my favorite authors and Room one of my favorite books. The Pull of the Stars sounds like a hard read: a day in the life of a nurse in a Dublin maternity ward during the 1918 pandemic. And it’s the ward for pregnant women sick with the flu. Julia Powers finds herself without another nurse or even an aide to help her tend very sick women, some of whom are in labor or giving birth. Despite these dire circumstances, the book completely entranced me with its wonderful characters and, of course, Donoghue’s marvelous story telling and prose. When I recommended it to friends and explained the plot, they were not receptive. Why would you subject yourself to such a downbeat novel, they wondered. But it wasn’t a downer at all. Despite all that happens, this book leaves you with a sense of hope.
Learned a lot about childbirth and I already had two children. Too technical in places. Interesting ending.
Thank you Librofm & Hachette Audio for this gifted audiobook. This opinion is my own.
3.5/5 Stars
When I first read that this book follows a NURSE working on a maternity ward during a major flu outbreak, I was excited! I was a nurse is my previous life so I loved the idea of a historical fiction novel tied into a profession I’m still passionate about.
I enjoyed the dichotomy of death and life that this story focuses one. People are dying of this nasty flu, yet life is still being brought into this world by the help of nurses like Julia Powers. I was constantly putting myself if Julia’s shoes, and imagine what I would do if I were running a ward like she was with the same lack of resources/technology. I thought that the characters were well rounded and had some depth to them. This a female driven story, which again I loved.
Where this all went wrong for me was at the end. At about 84% there is a romance that is introduced that seemed forced, unrealistic, and in no way helped to build off of the story. While I appreciated the overall ending of the story, I think that it could have been achieved in the same way without adding in the forced relationship. It honestly felt like the book wanted to add another sub-genre to the book and that in and of itself was a turnoff for me.
For the most part, I enjoyed Donoghue’s writing and I’d definitely give another book of hers a try.
Would have given 5 stars, but the lack of quotation marks was really disconcerting. This was for the kindle version. The story was compelling and really fascinating!
1918, influenza, family-dynamics, friendship, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture, medical-treatment
“That’s what influenza means, she said. Influenza della stelle-the influence of the stars. Medieval Italians thought the illness proved that the heavens were governing their fates, that people were quite literally star-crossed.”
For Nurse Julia, those three days working the Maternity/Fever Ward in a Dublin hospital in 1918 was like being in hell with one ice cube to share among her patients. The medical research was very meticulous, but I’m not sure how non-medicals react to the bloody truths laid out in the story about several women who entered the hospital pregnant and yet with Le Grippe as it is quite graphic (I am a retired RN and did work Labor and Delivery for a number of years). This is not so many years after The Rising, and the doctor who plays a big part in this story, Dr. Kathleen Lynn, is very real and worked hard to right many wrongs of the time. This is a very moving story at any time, but even more meaningful in 2020. I cannot say enough positive things about it.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley. Thank you!
Having read the galley for Emma Donoghue’s last novel The Wonder, I put in a request for The Pull of the Stars before even reading the synopsis. I was not disappointed.
Donoghue revisits some of the same themes in this novel–an unmarried female nurse embracing scientific methods, women’s lives in a repressive society, what we will do for family and love.
Set in 1918 in the middle of the Spanish Flu epidemic, in a Dublin maternity ward where an endless round of pregnant women ill with the flu come and go, the novel is a spine-tingling reminder of our vulnerability.
Donoghue began writing The Pull of the Stars in 2018. How chillingly providential that it would be published the year of the novel cornoavirus covid-19 epidemic.
Today as I write this review, violence and protests have been breaking out across America, demanding a just society. Donoghue’s novel depicts a world crushed by WWI, men broken in body and spirit like ghosts of the people they had once been. Unwed mothers are taken in by organizations that demand repayment through a kind of slave labor, their babies becoming trapped in servitude and subject to abuse.
The myth of progress is challenged by reminders of how little has changed in 100 years. War still crushes, the human body still is attacked by enemies large and small, society remains inequitable, ingrained social prejudices destroy lives.
Nurse Julia Powers is dedicated and hard-working, although underpaid and lacking authority. Readers spend several days with Julia at work, the action taking place in a small hospital room of three hospital cots.
This is not a novel for the squeamish. So many things go wrong. In graphic detail, readers endure the female patient’s suffering, the heroic endeavor to save the lives of mother and babies. We learn about their lives, their illness, their deaths.
Every loss is marked by Julia on her silver cased watch, a memorial and reminder to never forget.
This is not a novel to escape, the world too closely reflects what we are dealing with with today’s pandemic. Warnings, fake cures, the uncertainty, government endeavoring to play down the threat–nothing has changed.
I finished the novel in two days.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.