Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an Irish emigrant twice over: she spent eight years in Cambridge doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature before moving to London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their two children. She also migrates between genres, writing literary history, biography, stage and radio plays as well as fairy tales and short stories.
She is best known for her novels, which range from the historical (Frog Music, Slammerkin, Life Mask, Landing, The Sealed Letter) to the contemporary (Akin, Stir-Fry, Hood, Landing). Her international bestseller Room was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and was a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes.
"Room is that rarest of entities, an entirely original work of art.
I mean it as the highest possible praise when I tell you that I
can't compare it to any other book. Suffice to say that it's
potent, darkly beautiful, and revelatory."--Michael Cunningham,
author of The Hours and By Nightfall
"A bravura performance."--ELLE
"A novel so disturbing that we defy you to stop thinking about it,
days later."--Sara Nelson, O Magazine
"A riveting, powerful novel....Donoghue's inventive storytelling is
flawless and absorbing. She has a fantastic ability to build
tension in scenes where most of the action takes place in the
12-by-12 room where her central characters reside. Her writing has
pulse-pounding sequences that cause the reader's eyes to race over
the pages to find out what happens next....Room is likely to haunt
readers for days, if not longer. It is, hands down, one of the best
books of the year."--Liz Raftery, Boston Globe
"Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence into
horror and horror into tenderness. Room is a book to read in one
sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but
you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for
days."--Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife and
Her Fearful Symmetry
"I loved Room. Such incredible imagination, and dazzling use of
language. And with all this, an entirely credible, endearing little
boy. It's unlike anything I've ever read before."--Anita Shreve,
author of The Pilot's Wife and A Change in Altitude
"One of the most affecting and subtly profound novels of the
year."--Ron Charles, Washington Post
"Only a handful of authors have ever known how to get inside the
mind of a child and then get what they know on paper. Henry James,
Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and, more recently, Jean Stafford and
Eric Kraft come to mind, and after that one gropes for names. But
now they have company. Emma Donoghue's latest novel, Room, is
narrated by a 5-year-old boy so real you could swear he was sitting
right beside you.... Room is so beautifully contrived that it never
once seems contrived. But be warned: once you enter, you'll be
Donoghue's willing prisoner right down to the last page."--Malcolm
Jones, Newsweek
"Powerful.... Seen entirely through Jack's eyes and childlike
perceptions, the developments in this novel--there are enough plot
twists to provide a dramatic arc of breathtaking suspense--are
astonishing.... Donoghue brilliantly portrays the psyche of a child
raised in captivity...will keep readers rapt."--Publishers
Weekly
"Remarkable....Jack's voice is one of the pure triumphs of the
novel: in him, she has invented a child narrator who is one of the
most engaging in years - his voice so pervasive I could hear him
chatting away during the day when I wasn't reading the book....This
is a truly memorable novel, one that can be read through myriad
lenses - psychological, sociological, political. It presents an
utterly unique way to talk about love, all the while giving us a
fresh, expansive eye on the world in which we live."--Aimee Bender,
New York Times Book Review
Room is home to young Jack, a prison to his mother, and power to Old Nick. Jack's world explodes when his mother sends him on a mission that will change the lives of all three. VERDICT This original and unforgettable novel, with contemporary and timeless themes, is even more affecting for being told from the point of view of a child. [LJ 8/10; LJ Best Book of 2010] (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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