Book Review: The Wonder
Watch
to observe
to guard someone, as a keeper
to be awake, as a sentinel
a division of the night
In a small Irish midlands town, eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell appears to be subsisting on nothing but air. This is 1859 and the country is still haunted by the Great Famine, and twenty years away from strange happenings in Knock. Visitors to the O’Donnell’s cottage leave gifts and donations to the poor, drawn to this ‘wee wonder’, this miraculous child who has surely been selected by God.
Determined to verify that she really is going without food, the locals form a committee and agree to hire nurses to watch the girl. One an old nun, and the other Lib Wright, an English nurse trained by Florence Nightingale – Miss N. – in the Crimea. Lib is our entry point into this strange world, and as someone not steeped in the strange rituals of Roman Catholicism and Celtic lore, she’s ideally situated to echo what a modern reader will certainly think: they’re all mad. She’s determined to prove that this is all a fraud – but her careful observations reveal nothing about how this girl is managing to survive.
The mystery of that – and then the why of it – propel the story along, and Donoghue’s eye for detail means you’re immersed in this odd place and time. Lib is modern and practical, frequently frustrated and bemused by the Irish, although their representation never crosses over into caricature. And as the mystery unfurls it all feels terribly familiar – the grasp of the church and faith on people, and what that can lead to. The secrecy, the treatment of girls and women. The people of the nineteenth century believed themselves to be modern and civilised. So do we.
But thematic matters aside, it’s just a damn good read – I zipped through it, eager to find out what would happen next, intrigued by Lib and Anna and charmed by the young reporter who comes along to investigate the ‘wonder’. It’s gorgeously written and magnificently plotted, a smart psychological thriller about the slow death of a child. Very very much recommended.
