Pull of the Stars

A Novel

by

304 pages

English language

Published Nov. 20, 2020 by Little Brown & Company.

ISBN:
978-0-316-49904-0
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4 stars (2 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 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.

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reviewed The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

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3 stars

Set in the time of the Spanish Flu pandemic, Julia is a Dublin midwife assigned to a makeshift ward for pregnant women who have contracted the disease. Shunted away into a storage closet, the pregnant women are given little attention by doctors and medical supplies are scant. The bulk of the story is written in real-time, and we experience the stress and pain of Julia and her wards as each suffers the horrors of this aggressive flu and childbirth, each with her own level of success. Towards the end of the book, however, the story radically changes course--there were so many interesting themes in the story that were left at loose ends in exchange for a hasty, nonsensical ending. It really felt that [a:Emma Donoghue|23613|Emma Donoghue|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1591714728p2/23613.jpg] rushed this story to market, causing the resolution of the book to suffer. Well-written, but ultimately disappointing.

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