Wow! Such an unforgettable story, especially reading this during our current times. I am really glad I waited to read it until after I had my baby in June. A lot of the story revolves around maternal fetal medicine, which during the early 1900's and a war shortage, was pretty basic. I found myself flinching through a lot of the descriptions of procedures and really cannot understand how these women survived delivering their babies with such rudimentary medicine and tools!

The story of Julia and her assistant Bridie (I LOVED Bridie!) was my favorite part of the book. Their journey together over such a short time, the relationship that grew from their shared experiences was truly the most hopeful part of the book! I loved the ending too, it was PERFECT.

Also, bonus points for Donoghue crafting a title that pulled on my heartstrings- the meaning behind it spoke volumes for the time period and our lives today.

4 stars. *

I'm had absolutely no idea what this book was about when I decided to read it. I chose it solely because I loved Room and was interested to see what Emma Donoghue would come up with.

First of all, it's good. Its actually more than just good. But I'm in a weird headspace, vacillating between anxiety, despair and fury after 8 months of living in various stages of lockdown and management of COVID. One should know that this book is about the 1918 flu pandemic.

The main character is Nurse Julia Power, a woman on the brink of her 30th birthday, living with her PTSD-incapacitated younger brother and working on the front lines of the fight against the flu in poverty-stricken and war-tested Dublin.

On one hand the book was challenging to follow. It is written almost in prose, with no breaks for dialogue nor punctuation. One the other hand the style of writing leads the reader to understand the panic and intensity of the time and of the situations that Julia is facing.

The ancillary characters are her patients, the nuns, doctors, nurses and assistants she works alongside. And Bridie Sweeney a young volunteer that comes along and changes Julia's life completely.

I enjoyed the book but it was difficult. If you're fragile maybe wait on this one until we're through the pandemic. But I highly recommend it aside from the obvious.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

The author's book, Room, is one that has always stuck with me so I was excited to read a new book by her. This book is set in Dublin during the influenza pandemic of 1918. The entire story takes place over a few days almost entirely in a makeshift maternity ward for pregnant mothers who are infected with the flu. Three women work together to care for those in the ward and handle the emergencies that arise. The story is compelling and the details give amazing insight into the dire situation within the hospital setting and brings the time period to life.

Brilliant historical fiction, blending medical and scientific history with the everyday details of life during the 1918 Influenza pandemic in Ireland, specifically in a maternity ward. Nurse Julia Powers is just turning thirty, almost a spinster, and works tirelessly with the pregnant influenza victims in an impossibly tiny room of the hospital. Almost all of the action takes place here, but the larger world is present: World War I, unwed mothers, abusive husbands, Irish independence. If you know a nurse, admire nurses, love Call the Midwife, this book is for you. What amazing parallels to the world of 2020, Donoghue has given us a great gift of a novel.

I was drawn to The Pull of the Stars as it is centered around the 1918 flu pandemic, which is of course a fascinating topic right now in the age of COVID. I loved Donoghue’s book Room, although this one was more similar to another I’ve read by her, The Wonder. This story is told over the course of three days as Julia, a nurse in Dublin, takes care of pregnant flu patients in the hospital. It was very well written and had an unexpected romance and an interesting ending. However, the novel seemed too long and there were also some really graphic medical scenes that were a bit much for me. I also wish there had been more about the pandemic in the book, as it mostly centered more around the pregnancies of the patients.

As with Donoghue's "Room", "The Pull of the Stars" has a claustrophobic atmosphere and for very good reason. It is set in 1918 Dublin during the influenza pandemic as well as the returning home of severely injured soldiers who fought in the British army in WWI. Most of the characters are very poor and ill, fatalistic if fearful about what will happen to them next. The protagonist is Julia Power, a nurse who is also a midwife, working in a public hospital that is overflowing with flu victims. Late-term pregnant women who show signs of the flu are brought to a "Ward" (actually a room for three to four patients) where they are cared for by Nurse Power during late afternoon and night shifts. A dour nun is there for morning and midday hours. There are plenty of emergency situations in this “ward” but also patience and loving compassion from Julia and Bridie Sweeney who suddenly appears as a volunteer runner with no training or education. This room becomes a sacred space as tragedy befalls the patients too rapidly and too often, and all must reckon with the meaning of it all, if they can find meaning. There are only two doctors available, one who is off-shift for most of the book, and a woman who is the only historic character in the novel. She is Dr. Kathleen Lynn, a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland who also did internships and residencies In Ireland, England, and the U.S. who, nonetheless, has been considered unemployable by hospitals until the pandemic. The reasons are that she is a woman, and that she participated in the Easter Uprising in Dublin in 1916 and spent time in prison. Her greatest passions are raising awareness and funding for the destitute in Ireland, and providing clinical care for mothers and infants born to families with little to eat and no place to live, Photographs taken in Ireland during this period show children who look like skeletal survivors of WWII's death camps.
If the beginning of the book feels repetitive, this gives way to urgency and even panic in the Fever and Maternity Ward. There are graphic scenes of childbirth, some of the deliveries being extremely dangerous to mother and baby. The desperation that Julia and Bridie experience comes from their having to do the nearly-impossible without support or adequate equipment. When there is a respite, the relationships among the caregivers deepen, and they truly give aid and comfort to each other. These scenes are probably the most moving in the book and have stayed with me.
There is plenty of room for villains in the story, particularly wealthy/indifferent people, and the Catholic church which forbids birth control and runs the Mother and Baby homes that became such a scandal in 2018 and are still changing social awareness in Ireland. The characters are not stereotypical: for example, Dr. Lynn is Protestant and well-off but risks her life and freedom to help the poor and sick. Bridie comes from very difficult circumstances but develops her own spirituality that has whispers of ancient Irish faith. Julia has done her best to stay between the guardrails in her job, but she is changed by events into a brave rebel, not unlike Dr. Lynn and other Irish women who stood up to the British government, the Church, and much of the moneyed aristocracy.

NB If you enjoy this book, you would probably love "The Wonder”, also by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue’s latest is set in Ireland during the 1918 flu pandemic. The subject matter is so timely with so many parallels to how we are dealing with COVID-19. The book has heart and touched upon multiple issues, including poverty, classicism, sexism, religion and political oppression. Much of the book is set in a hospital ward for pregnant women who also have flu symptoms. Some of descriptions of are vivid and graphic and I was very much drawn into the setting. I like that no two of Donoghue’s books are the same and I applaud her for delving into this topic. The scenes are tragic but the characters are lovable and this is not a story that I will soon forget.

It’s not surprising I would be drawn to books dealing with pandemics, either the 1918 Spanish Flu or dystopia novels exploring the what if’s of the future. Emma Donoghue was actually researching The Pull of the Stars in 2018 (the 100th anniversary of this influenza) and it was just serendipity that it was in the final stages of publication when COVID-19 began infiltrating our world’s population.

Those of you familiar with Donoghue’s works know that she favors novels taking place in Dublin, Ireland (her birthplace) drawing inspiration from historical figures surrounded by a fictional cast. Our main character, Julia Power, is a midwife working in a small Maternity ward consisting of three beds (crammed into a small space which was originally a supply closet) caring for pregnant women infected with the Spanish Flu right at the height of the 1918 epidemic. Covering a three day period, the reader experiences the angst of childbirth during a time in history where antibiotics were a distant dream and cesarean sections were a dangerous undertaking so that women frequently died due to complications from the delivery. Factor in the side effects from “the grippe” and the mortality rate of both mother and newborn were even higher than normal. Remember, the first of the flu vaccines did not come into play until 1938 so that the worldwide mortality rate from this pandemic ranged between 3 and 6 percent.

The staffing at the hospital was so sparse that Julia as Acting Matron must go it alone, except for a young volunteer, Bridie Sweeney, who brings a note of lightness to the ward, eager to learn and lend a helping hand even when the situation is dire. As the novel unfolds we acquire the main characters’ backstories (based on testimonials and diaries of the time period), helping the reader to develop an attachment to these heroes who were undertaking a daunting challenge. Our historical character is Dr Kathleen Lynn, a female doctor concerned with the nutrition, housing, and sanitation of society, famous for her free clinic available to the destitute. Lynn was spared a prison sentence after her arrest (for radical leadership in pursuit of a breakaway Irish Republic) so she could continue ministering to the influenza victims. She eventually founded a children’s hospital and became a member of the new Irish Parliament in 1923.

This is one of Donoghue’s better novels, not just because of the subject matter, but because at 304 pages, the plot quickly flows and keeps the reader engaged. Under the surface is a tale of the hazardous plight of woman during a crisis of illness and war. If you are squeamish or don’t want to read the minute details surrounding childbirth, you better skip this one. As an aside, please don’t get too emotionally attached to any of the characters because epidemics do not always have happy endings. The one is this book leaves more questions than answers.

Four stars and a thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown & Company for providing thIs ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This review can also be found on Goodreads and my blog, Gotta Read:
https://ellenk59.wordpress.com/2020/08/09/the-pull-of-the-stars-by-emma-donoghue/

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
This book!
I’m not sure what to say about this book other than that I could not put it down. And can’t get the book out of my head!
It covers only a few days, and focuses largely on the lives of three women working in a Dublin maternity ward during the 1918 pandemic.
A warning: some of the labors and births described were harder than the two I actually had. I found myself physically twisting around while reading. (That’s how vivid the writing is.)
Not hard to imagine why Donoghue’s publishers ripped the book out of her hands when she submitted it.
So many of the issues affecting our world---especially those surrounding stigma, illness, and poverty---are at the core of the book.
Donoghue writes about cloyingly small places….impossible not to connect to that little ward and the people who are its temporary inhabitants.
In the darkness, the book provides phenomenal light. A character written with such joy and humanity that she burst out of the pages.
The book is one readers (and clubs) could discuss forever.
We all have something to teach, we all have something to learn. We don’t know who we are until tested. Our stories are more complicated than we assume. We do the most surprising things because we love others.
I think I have to go read it again.

If you’re trying to avoid thinking about the pandemic, this will NOT be the book for you. Otherwise, it’s another fantastic novel from Emma Donoghue, author of Room and The Wonder. This is a historical novel set in Dublin in 1918 during World War I and the devastating influenza pandemic. Julia Power is a 30-year old nurse in a city hospital; she’s assigned to a ward that treats pregnant women who are infected with the flu. Julia is hard-working and cares about her patients. She lives with her brother, who recently returned from the front, and for psychological reasons can no longer speak.

What happens in this book is mostly what you expect. People suffer and die, and it is ugly. But Donoghue’s well-researched novel really sets the stage and shines a light on this pandemic that no one much talks about. She particularly shines a light on how disproportionately the poor are impacted, particularly women and children. Donoghue writes about the plight of poor young mothers, many of whom are forced to have too many babies, and others who are literally enslaved in Ireland’s system of work homes like the Magdalene laundries.

But there’s hope as well, in the form of a strong, dedicated female doctor (Dr. Katherine Lynn, who was a real person) and Bridie, an earnest young volunteer. And during the course of three days in an overcrowded hospital, Julia learns more about herself – and her country – than she expected.

It’s not light reading, and it won’t take your mind off our current situation. But I couldn’t put it down and I loved the characters. And it was really interesting to see the way people came together to fight the spread of the disease, from dedicated hospital workers to government propaganda (one poster reads, “Would they be dead if they stayed in bed?”). I was particularly surprised to hear how quickly the flu incapacitated and killed people, sometimes in a single day.

This is a book where the action is minimal. There are few characters and the book takes place over just a few days, mostly in one room. And yet Donoghue weaves so many issues into her story. Donoghue is one of the most talented writers around, in my opinion. I highly recommend Room, The Wonder, Astray, and Slammerkin, and she has others I hope to read soon.

Note: I received a complimentary advanced reading copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Little, Brown and Co. This book published on July 21, 2020.

Emma Donoghue's fictional account of a young nurse struggling to save patients during the Spanish flu epidemic is gripping, heartbreaking, and yet hopeful. Her protagonist, nurse Julia Powell, has three women under her care, all sick with the flu and about to give birth. Because the hospital is overcrowded, a small room is turned into a temporary maternity ward, and help is scarce, with doctors pulled in every direction.

Fortunately, an energetic young woman named Bridie arrives to help, and a doctor on the run from the authorities lends a hand when possible. The tiny room these characters inhabit gives the book a sense of claustrophobia, stress, and exhaustion, and sometimes the story becomes almost too hard to read.

But it's a story worth reading. Donoghue's turns a sharp eye on the Catholic church and Irish society in regard to their treatment of the poorest and most needy among us. It's hard to read about women expected to give birth for years and years, because "if she loves him, she'll give him a dozen," and about the children mistreated in orphanages.

This is historical fiction, with characters like Dr. Kathleen Lynn, and details that reflect the terrible epidemic--and echo what we're going through in 2020. Don't miss this one, but be brave when you read it.

Over three days, Nurse Julia is responsible for pregnant women infected with the 1918 flu in a small room. in Ireland The hospital is short staffed and Julia is mostly by herself except for a volunteer named Bridie and a few doctors who come by occasionally. The book is more about child birth that the 1918 flu. The pregnant women vary in age and come from different backgrounds and religions. Julia is 29 but incredibly intelligent and brave. She does a better job saving the lives and taking care of the women than the male doctors would. I learned disturbing facts about orphanages during that time and was immersed in medical care during that time. The women were encouraged to drink whiskey and given choloroform for their pain. Julia's life is completely different in many ways after these three days have passed.

"I'd never believed the future was inscribed for each of us the day we were born. If anything was written in the stars, it was we who joined those dots, and our lives were the writing."

"Nursing was like being under a spell: you went in very young and came out older that any span of years could make you."

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue is about the 1918 flu epidemic in Ireland and how the flu affected pregnant citizens. Nurse Julia Power is thrust into managing the maternity ward for fevered flu victims who are kept isolated from their families. She is given a last-minute assistant, Bridie, with zero medical experience. Julia and Bridie form a powerful and deep relationship as they manage the needs of their high-risk patients. This is a fast-moving story with well-developed characters that I truly enjoyed reading.

Well. I was prepared to be "meh" about The Pull of the Stars, since very hyped historical fiction that tends to be *so timely*. I've been burned by books and authors like this before. BUT... I started this at 10pm and finished it at 3am the next morning. So I think I can say Donoghue blew my expectations out of the water. The plot is tightly paced, with quiet moments in between the frantic panic of a hospital environment. I felt very immersed in 1918, in Dublin, and in the hospital, which all worked together to create a realistically tense atmosphere.

I felt like the weakest part was the protagonist/narrator, Julia. It felt like Donoghue was putting in so much work to everything else that Julia got overshadowed a little. That's not to say she's a badly written character, she's just not the strongest. Bridie, on the other hand, sparkles with life. It felt like *her* story was the one Donoghue was more excited about, but felt like she couldn't tell a novel from that point of view, for whatever reason. My other tiny pet peeves is that, at least in the ebook ARC, she doesn't use quotation marks to set off dialogue which, while you get used it it, has some moments where it makes things pretty puzzling to understand what is narration and what's dialogue. It wasn't enough to make me not finish, but I can see other readers DNFing because of that.

That being said, I am looking forward to picking up a physical copy of the novel at some point and to read more of Donoghue's historical fiction. :) Oh, and for anyone wondering if she wrote this specifically because of/in response to the COVID pandemic, she does say in an author's note that it's just a very weird coincidence and had her manuscript turned in well beforehand. So.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing the ebook ARC of The Pull of the Stars in exchange for my review. All opinions are mine alone.

In 1918 World War I is still grinding away, the Influenza pandemic is raging, and the wards of a Dublin hospital are overflowing with flu patients. The maternity ward is not immune, so a tiny three bed room is created in which pregnant women with influenza are isolated for the duration of their pregnancy, including their labor and delivery. Over a period of three days, the characters, both patients and staff, peel back the layers of their lives to expose the sexist manipulation exerted by on them by religion, government, the male doctors, and society in general. Each character provides a snapshot of Ireland's turbulent history during this time-- Sinn Fein, injured veterans, poverty, women's rights, the pandemic, a suffocating religious stranglehold on life, and the public's acceptance or rejection of these influences. Some characters are lovable, and others not so much, but you will remember them after the last page is turned. There are many well researched descriptions of the practices and information. Some persist, but thankfully, some have been relegated to local torture museum. All the characters are fictional, except for Dr. Lynn, whose explained that the word “Influenza” came from “Influenza delle stelle”, and the medieval Italians belief the heavens govern ones fate. Issue driven and well worth reading. I have already recommended to friends.

This book is well and poorly timed: it’s about the work of female nurses in a 1918 Irish hospital during the flu pandemic. Over 100 years later, the 1918 flu is top of mind again, and this book couldn’t be a better fictional look into a hospital when modern news stories suggest not enough has changed.

There is so much about this book (which I requested and received through Netgalley) to love: the well written characters with a good amount of slow-reveal backstory for each, the tight, three day timeline, the visceral descriptions of women’s physical burdens. I devoured this book and would have given it a perfect 5 stars except for (SPOILER) a very shoehorned love story that I found did not fit within the story as a whole. I predicted it early into reading the book, but was still disappointed to see it. I want to see more f/f in fiction, but I wish it hadn’t been dropped in here with a huge age difference and power differential.

Admittedly the only other book I have read by this author is Room, but I knew from that book alone that she is a good author. As soon as I saw this book was coming out I knew I had to read it! Sadly, the story hits very close to home because of all that's going on now with COVID 19.
This book follows a woman who is working on a Maternity/Sick ward in a hospital in Ireland, during the Great Flu of 1918. At that time it was considered a pandemic, much like we are going through now. Everyone was to.wear masks, and avoid catching the flu by any means possible. Julia is nurse in the ward in charge of making sure that heavily.pregnant women and their babies survived the flu, to the best her ability.
Throughout the story she suffers many losses, but her one gain is the love from a "helper" she is assigned named Birdie. With Birdie's help Julia navigates the waters of caring for these sick women, for the most part, successfully. During the book we are also introduced to Dr. Lynn, who is a woman doctor who is working to get as much knowledge as she can about the flu, so she can stop it and prevent this pandemic from ever happening again. Dr. Lynn was a real doctor, and in my opinion, a hero, during this time.
This book was a great read, as I knew it would be.

I received this book as a free ebook from NetGalley.

A very timely book that takes place during the Spanish Flu epidemic. An overworked Irish nurse working in a hospital in Dublin has to deal with the flu and expectant mothers at the same time. Being understaffed leads to her getting help from a young woman with no nursing experience, chaos and friendship ensues. The book doesn't shy away from the realities of pregnant, ill women and the risks of pregnancy during the early 1900s, bad things do happen to some of these characters. I did enjoy this book but felt that the second half was rushed, the story between Julia (the nurse) and Bridie (the assistant) went to fast and ended a bit to abruptly, it would have been nice to see that more fleshed out before the book ended. I would have like to have read more about Julia's brother, who came back from the war not the same as he was when he left. Still, this was a good solid read and I did enjoy it.

This book was riveting. I enjoyed all of the information about the 1918 pandemic, women's health in the earlier part of the century, maternity issues, the vast poverty in Dublin, role/abuses of the Catholic Church, the homes for unwed mothers, sectarianism, and the Irish struggle for independence. The storylines and human relationships are well thought out, developed, and believable. The story takes place over three days and is a real page turner. I highly recommend.

This story hit home. Being in the midst of a different global pandemic this story of a group of nurses during the flu of 1918 hits very close to home. Be prepared for an emotional experience. Very worth your time! Loved!!!!