Staff Pick
Emma Donoghue mines current headlines for her harrowing account of a young woman held captive in a room for years. Forced to bear a child by her captor, "Ma" becomes increasingly desperate to escape her one-room hell. On the other hand, Jack, her 5-year-old son, loves the Room; it is his entire world. Narrated by Jack, this terrifying story is so worth the angst you will experience reading it. Heartbreaking, hopeful, gripping, and flat-out fantastic, Room will stay with you long after you put it down. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Now a Major Motion Picture starring Brie Larson and William H. Macy #1 International Bestseller Winner of the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Canada and Caribbean region) Winner of the Hughes and Hughes Irish Novel of the Year To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. Its where he was born. Its where he and Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. There are endless wonders that let loose Jacks imagination-the snake under Bed that he constructs out of eggshells; the coziness of Wardrobe beneath Mas clothes, where she tucks him in safely at night, in case Old Nick comes. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, its the prison where shes been held since she was nineteen-for seven long years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in that eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But Jacks curiosity is building alongside her own desperation, and she knows that Room cannot contain either indefinitely . . . Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience-and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.
Review
“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 cant compare it to any other book. Suffice to say that its potent, darkly beautiful, and revelatory.” Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours
Review
“Claustrophobic, controversial, brilliant . . . inventive, tense, and stringently intelligent.” Maclean's
Review
“Remarkable . . . heartrending. . . . Both gripping and poignant, its a tribute to human resourcefulness and resilience and extremity, and a stirring portrait of a mothers devotion.” Toronto Star
Review
“An astounding, terrifying novel.” The New Yorker
Review
“Thrilling and at moments palm-sweatingly harrowing.” New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Born in Dublin, in 1969, Emma Donoghue is a writer of contemporary and historical fiction-including Slammerkin, Life Mask, The Sealed Letter, Astray, and Frog Music-as well as literary history and drama for stage, radio, and screen. Room has sold over a million copies worldwide. It was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the Governor Generals Literary Award, and the Orange Prize for Fiction; and the winner of the Hughes and Hughes Irish Novel of the Year, the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Canada and Caribbean region). She lives in London, Ontario, with her partner, son, and daughter. Visit her online, at emmadonoghue.com, on Twitter @EDonoghueWriter, or become a fan on Facebook.