Many thanks to NetGalley; Little, Brown and Company; and Emma Donoghue for the opportunity to read and review her latest work - 5 stars for such a well-written novel that couldn't be more relevant in today's COVID-19 landscape. I have been a huge fan of Emma Donoghue's since I read Room - I don't think there's anyone better at putting you in a story, feeling the environment and the characters' pain.
Set in Dublin, Ireland, in 1918, during the Influenza Pandemic that killed an estimated 3-6 percent of the world's population, we are drawn into three days in the life of Nurse Julia Power as she works in the maternity flu ward at the hospital. Two other amazing characters are introduced - Dr Lynn (a real doctor so be sure to read the author's notes at the end) and Bridie Sweeney, a young woman from the local orphanage sent to help. These three women fight to save the lives of the women brought to them as well as the lives of their babies.
There is much to be gained from looking back at our history - this book explores how women and orphans were treated like slaves, how vastly medicine and medical practices have changed, and how government responses to crises may not have changed as much as we would like - but the human factor in this story as well as our own is what rises above all. While some may struggle with the medical procedures and resulting gore in this book, you can't help but feel an incredible pull towards the story of people going through a pandemic while we are living through a new one. And there is hope because of course the world survived this one, so we will survive our current one. "The human race settles on terms with every plague in the end....Or a stalemate, at the least. We somehow muddle along, sharing the earth with each new form of life."
Highly recommended for a book and characters that will continue to haunt me.
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