A Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist and #1 bestseller, The Wonder is the latest masterpiece from Man Booker Prize—nominated author Emma Donoghue.
The Toronto Star praises The Wonder as “a thoroughly enjoyable read from one of the country’s premier storytellers.” Emma Donoghue takes the reader back to 1850s Ireland, where a village is baffled by Anna O’Donnell’s fast. The little girl appears to be thriving after months without food, and the story of this “wonder” has reached fever pitch. Tourists flock to the O’Donnell family’s cabin, and an international journalist is sent to cover the sensational story. Enter Lib, an English nurse trained by Florence Nightingale, who is hired to keep watch for two weeks and determine whether or not Anna is a fraud. As Anna deteriorates, Lib finds herself responsible not just for the care of a child, but for getting to the root of why the child may actually be the victim of murder in slow motion.
The Wonder works beautifully on many levels—as a simple tale of two strangers who will transform each other’s lives, as a powerful psychological thriller and as a story of love pitted against evil in its many masks.