The Pull of the Stars is set in Ireland in 1918. Because I keep reading these books that were written pre-COVID and pandemics seem to be stalking me.Īnyway, I really liked this understated exploration of healthcare, illness, maternity, and all kinds of power abuses. Serious question: were there always this many books about pandemics? Is this like one of those things where you learn about something you'd never heard of before and then, suddenly, it's EVERYWHERE. Here we are in the golden age of medicine- making such great strides against rabies, typhoid fever, diphtheria- and a common or garden influenza is beating us hollow. 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. 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, 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. A small world of work, risk, death and unlooked-for love, by the bestselling author of The Wonder and ROOM. Dublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu.

The pull of the stars by emma donoghue