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The Pull of the Stars

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The Pull of the Stars

Written by: Emma Donoghue
Narrated by: Emma Lowe
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About this listen

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

 20th Century Genre Fiction Historical Historical Romance Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction World War I

Critic Reviews

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)
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 gets
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 place (Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry)
Extraordinarily prescient . . . With The Pull of the Stars, [Donoghue] again conjures up a setting that is at once claustrophobic in feel yet epic in sweep
Donoghue writes with such brilliant relish . . . fascinating and resonant
Eerily topical, Donoghue’s new novel reads like an episode of Call The Midwife set during a pandemic . . . It is some cocktail and Donoghue mixes the ingredients with impressive skill
Remarkably prescient
One of the Emerald Isle’s most glittering literary lights, Donoghue here delivers a historical fiction turned timely reminder of human resilience
It is rare for such a fast-paced story to be told so beautifully, and the writing is comical & exquisite
Moving, gripping and dazzlingly written
As strong and compelling as Jack in Room and Lib in The Wonder . . . a haunting and finely balanced literary novel (Sarah Moss)
Certainly, the currency of The Pull of the Stars gives it a gripping edge, but at its heart this is a story about friendship, love and compassion in extraordinary times . . . It's an engrossing read. Donoghue's writing is visceral and her female characters strike a powerful chord of humanity that stays with you
Donoghue offers vivid characters and a gripping portrait of a world beset by a pandemic and political uncertainty. A fascinating read in these difficult times.
Narrator Emma Lowe's layered characterizations include distinct Irish accents and diction that illuminate the backgrounds of the protagonists and hospital staff. The pregnant women in their care are depicted with particular sensitivity; their pain, joy, and loss are all keenly felt. As circumstances around the women intensify, so will listeners' investment in the outcomes of their stories.
Donoghue’s searing tale . . . Her blunt prose and detailed, painstakingly researched medical descriptions do full justice to the reality of the pandemic and the poverty that helps fuel it. Donoghue’s evocation of the 1918 flu, and the valor it demands of health-care workers, will stay with readers
All stars
Most relevant
Pandemic, uncertainty, despair, hope - The 2020 pandemic is just a sliver of what humankjnd has been through, over the past centuries of documented history. This book shows how impacting the 1918 influenza was, intertwined with the aftereffects of war, penned down from a lense of frontline medical worker - Nurse Julia Powers. The book takes you into the maternity ward of a small hospital in Dublin, Ireland of 1918 and puts you right in the middle of all the chaos and action. Absolutely loved the narrative and the audible version.

A day in Pandemic 1918

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