The Pull of the Stars is gruesome, and painful, and horrifying, and utterly so worth the read/listen. The emotions are high, hopes are dashed and then renewed over and over again. Nurse Julia and her runner Bridie work tirelessly for three days trying to save their patients and their babies, one of the most at risk populations (then and now). The present day United States has all the resources to prevent the majority of tragedies that occurred in this book, and yet we are killing ourselves due to apathy. The Pull of the Stars follows a nurse treating patients in a maternity ward during the Spanish Influenza, almost 100 years ago exactly! And even then, when they couldn’t see the virus (a strong enough microscope hadn’t been invented yet), people were afraid, and cautious, and they cared about the lives of their countrymen. I’ve never really listened to/read a book like this and it was a gut wrenching experience. 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.Ī compelling that relates to today’s times

With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world.

In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other's lives in unexpected ways.

Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders - Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumored Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. 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. 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 ).

Emma donoghue the pull of the stars