Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of The Pull of the Stars.

Set in Ireland, during the 1918 pandemic, we spend 3 days in a small, maternity ward, with pregnant women who are infected, and Nurse Julia Powers, who fights for them and their babies. We experience loss and despair, hope and triumph, and we learn A LOT about early 20th century medicine and child birth.

I've put off reading this book, given the current circumstances of 2020, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Pull of the Stars. Despite it's content, it's an easy read, and very well written. The lack of quotation marks for dialogue was a bit distracting and confusing at first, but after a few chapters, I was so enthralled in the story, that I no longer noticed or cared. Written pre-Covid, one can't help but compare our parallels. Hospitals are completely overwhelmed and understaffed, which is how Julia ends up in charge, and meets Bridie, a young untrained girl, who offers to help.

Don't let the fact that this book is about a pandemic keep you from reading it. I've read a few of Emma Donoghue's books, and this may be my favorite one so far. While surrounded by war, sickness, death and tragedy, it leaves you feeling a sense of hope and optimism!

As we are currently in the middle of a world-wide pandemic with Covid-19, I really wanted to like this book about the Spanish Flu, but sadly I was disappointed. Nurse Julia’s story takes place in a World War I ravaged Ireland in a sadly shorthanded hospital trying to keep pace with this “new flu “brought home from war.

Julia works in the maternity ward, but currently is quarantined with a small group of expectant mothers who are fighting this unknown disease because she herself has already had and gotten over the flu. Julia seems quite the competent nurse and given the time period has very modern ideas regarding labor and delivery, more than once saving a mother’s life.

Across only a few days two other women step into Julia’s ward changing not only her routine, but her mindset as well. Dr. Kathleen Lynn, an alleged rebel, and Bridie, an orphan volunteer, each help Julia to look at Ireland’s populace as a whole and how different classes are treated.

The details Donoghue employs remind me of one of my favorite shows—Call the Midwife. It is obvious a ton of research was ton while writing this novel; however, I feel like the author fell short a bit with the characters. Dr. Lynn, a real person, could have been fleshed out more in my opinion, as well as her rebel cause, lending some weight to the novel. I also felt like the romance thrown in at the end was not built up enough, or perhaps was unnecessary. This was a novel about humanity and it felt trivial and thrown in. A bit more build up would have helped it fit in the plot more cohesively.

Overall, this book is worth reading right now if only for the parallels to our world right now. Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Throughout this quiet read there were several times I thought, "if someone were to ask me what this book was about how would I describe it?" And that is because this was one of the most minimalist plots I have ever read and yet somehow I kept turning the page and wanting more. The story was so simple confined mostly to one small setting with just a handful of characters who have barely any dialogue and yet the author manages to pull off a story with so much depth that you feel like you are right there in the room with your own sleeves pulled up working right alongside the main character.

This is the third of Emma Donoghue's novels I've read (others were ROOM and THE WONDER). This book falls somewhere in the middle for me (not as good as THE ROOM, but better than THE WONDER, though that book had so much potential). THE PULL OF THE STARS is set over the course of a week in a Dublin maternity hospital at the height of the influenza pandemic of 1918, as we follow the struggles of nurse Julia Power as she fights for the lives of her patients and their children.

There is much to admire here: meticulously observed medical details that mean the difference between life and death, a diverse cast of characters, and a rich writing style. And yet I found myself distanced from the narrative, as if watching a life-and-death struggle from afar. While others will undoubtedly find the parallels between the 1917-1919 pandemic to resonate strongly with the CoVid-19 pandemic, for me the constant drumbeat of death and waste became numbing -- even tedious. Perhaps this is compassion fatigue -- perhaps it's the book itself -- but I'd recommend this for readers in 2020 who have the emotional resiliency to cope with a book that hits very close to home.

A very timely novel that brings us to the time of another horrendous pandemic and with excellent narrative and characters, brings the drama of the past back to life..

Historical Fiction | Adult
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How fascinating that Emma Donoghue (author of the astonishing Room) chose the 1918 Spanish Flu as the setting for her new novel, finishing it just as the current pandemic hit our shores. You’d think the last thing anyone would want to read is a novel about a pandemic, but in fact, it’s a fascinating story that offers a hopeful, I think, perspective on our current situation. First, obviously, it’s good to know that our world emerged intact from a killer pandemic, and that eventually the crisis receded into the distant past, and life as we knew it returned to normal. Kind need to hear that right now. Second, what a fascinating window into that century-old event. The Great War is nearly over, and no one knows how this terrible flu has taken hold, but it is costing lives daily, in hospitals, in homes, and in the streets. The political uprising is complicating life in Ireland, where the poor are focused more on surviving than home rule. Nurse Julia Power works in a tiny maternity ward (a converted supply room) in a Dublin Catholic hospital, a ward specifically for patients with the fever that is raging around the world. Childbirth is still a dangerous time for women, and the deadly flu virus further complicates both care and delivery.
Power and her new volunteer helper Bridie Sweeney join forces with a separatist female doctor over three days to help several young women as their bodies struggle against the flu while simultaneously preparing to give birth to new life. It’s fascinating to witness the juxtaposition of new protocols such as sterilisation with old-school poultices, but the real story is in the tender relationships between Donoghue’s characters as they face the most trying times. Donoghue draws on medical, feminist, political, and social history to imbue her novel with verisimilitude, creating sympathetic characters that come to life as they struggle against the pandemic but also a world where social forces seem just as deadly and incomprehensible. My thanks to Little, Brown for the digital reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Grand Forks & District Public Library also has a copy in its adult fiction collection.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52722079

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue is set in Dublin in 1918 – the war and the flu epidemic. Given the current pandemic, it seems timely with lessons to be learned. However, the book is much more about the challenges of a maternity ward with copious medical descriptions. That and two love stories that are introduced out of nowhere towards the end of the book make this not the book for me. So disappointing.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/10/the-pull-of-stars.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

As someone who typically does not read historical fictions, I loved this one. It was an especially fantastic quarantine read as it follows along with a pandemic happening in Ireland. There were some parts that were a bit more difficult to read as it does follow along with death in a maternity ward. But overall it was a quick and enjoyable book!

I was totally captivated by this beautifully written and timely story!
Set in Dublin in 1918, at the height of The Great Flu, nurse Julia Power works at a short-staffed hospital in the maternity ward. Racing to save the lives of these pregnant mothers with the flu, and their babies, Bridie Sweeney, from a convent nearby, is sent to assist Julia. They quickly form a bond.
Through their seemingly hopeless work, these women change each other's lives all while helping to deliver new life and fight off death.
Author Emma Donoghue delivers a gem!
One of my favourite books of the year!

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown & Company for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review!

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Two confessions. First, I heard about this book late, requested it at the last minute, and set it aside after I started it. I had so many other books to review and the release date was already past...so, I put it back onto my TBR pile after a couple of chapters. Second, I cried at the end of the book—from 94 percent on my Kindle to the end. I was still crying when I read the author's note. Not just a few obligatory tears. I'm talking messy, sniffling, borderline sobs. I can't remember the last time I've done that while reading a book.

Emma Donoghue's The Pull of the Stars is a compelling, gorgeous book for so many reasons. Every character – a rebel doctor, a nurse with a shell-shocked brother, an orphaned runner, an abused teenage wife, a broken mother of 12, a singing stretcher bearer – is complex. And as dark and fast-paced as the plot is, there's no question of its plausibility. Then there's the writing itself, which is as fierce and finely wrought as Julia Power's pocket watch. Nurse Julia scratches heavenly symbols onto the watch's surface every time she loses a patient, whether it be mother, baby or a stillborn child. Donoghue does the same thing in her novel, marking the dead with language that refuses to fade.

There were times when I was reading this story of the 1918 flu pandemic and I thought well, she must be exaggerating this or that for art's sake. But the note at the end of the book and her interviews make it clear that this fiction is relentlessly grounded in reality. The conditions Julia confronts every moment in an impoverished Dublin maternity ward are abhorrent—and yet the makeshift place for sick mothers-to-be is pierced by beauty. The birth of a child, shared laughter, a flash of red hair: these moments come together to form constellations that illuminate the darkened, war-saturated world. As bleak as that world is, The Pull of the Stars never leaves us without hope or reason to believe in humanity's capacity for good.

Though she began the novel before the COVID pandemic started, Donoghue has written the perfect book for our own time. Much thanks to Little, Brown & Company and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I finished this in one sitting. Engrossing tale with beautiful language and descriptions. It's rare lately to discover a book that you can absolutely escape into.

This book was really well written. I think if I had read it a year ago, I would have loved it. While it was interesting to compare the pandemic today to the flu in the past, it wasn't the escape I needed as a reader. I may come back to this book again in the future to give it another read.

I adored this book!!! Set over a few days in an Irish hospital our main character is the true heroine during the time of Spanish influenza in Dublin. Beautiful sweeping writing, the relationship bet2en the two main characters had me swooning and I definitely shed a tear at the end. Love love loved.

I am so glad I had the chance to read this book. I had read a previous novel by Emma Donoghue but I did not expect to enjoy this book even more than the first book.
I have always been fascinated by the Flu Pandemic of 1918 and it was basically family lore as my great grandfather died in the pandemic.
Nurse Julia Powers works in a ward with expectant mothers who have contacted the flu. Julia has already had the flu which is one less worry for her. She is dealing with tragic and heart breaking situations where no matter how hard she tries she is going to lose some patients. Each death of a mother or baby lays heavier on her heart. She is also trying to look after her brother who came back from the Great War psycologically scarred.
I became so emotionally involved with Julia and her patients. It must have been awful during the pandemic. They didn't really know the exact cause of the pandemic, or how to treat it effectively. Antibiotics did not exist at that time. I also appreciated learning more about Doctor Kathleen Lynn who was a rebel on the run from the police.
Once again, I ended up in tears at the end of a book by Emma Donoghue. I was so happy for her but then devasted at the end. No, I will not give any spoilers away. This is another exceptional novel by Emma Donoghue.

Emma Donoghue is an outstanding historical fiction author and The Pull of the Stars shows her at the top of her game. And it is brilliant, a book that is smartly written and deeply heartfelt, a book that makes you feel and thinks which is the very best gift a book can give.

The only downside is that it can be hard to get readers pumped about reading a literary pandemic novel. Fortunately, Emma Donoghue's extensive backlist, including the blockbuster Room, helps a lot, and I'm finding that in addition to Room, fans of her outstanding Slammerkin or The Wonder, are also eager to read this. (And yay!!) for that!

The Pull of the Stars is outstanding

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I just can't read about anything related to a pandemic during our current situation.

This novel by Emma Donoghue shows what the realities are in a maternity ward in the middle of the 1918 pandemic. Our main character, Julia Power, is working at an understaffed, unprepared hospital in the center of Dublin and her days are filled with sorrow, suffering, and signs of hope. The first day we meet Julia, she finds out she is being put in charge of the maternity ward alone and she is trying to figure out how she will navigate this when she is introduced to her new helper, Bridie Sweeney, a volunteer who has never worked in a hospital before but is eager to learn. The relationship that is quickly forged between these two women is in no small part to what they must endure. Of the women under their care, there are complications in birth, from the flu, from an understanding of the birthing process. The lead doctor is a woman on the run, Doctor Kathleen Lynn, and she is smart and strong and puts faith and power in Julia's hands and allows her to follow her judgment regarding the care of the patients. This story is full of pain, power, resilience, hope, and struggle and it does not shy away from the gritty details and truth of the situation. My only complaint is that I wish this was advertised as being queer. I and many other readers became more interested in (and in fact more willing to) reading this novel because there is a queer element - especially sapphic! I urge you not to shy away from the LGBTQ label, clearly, the author included it for a reason and not for shame. Labeling something as queer will get you more readers, this has been proven before with Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Priory of the Orange Tree. Don't limit your readership by excluding this title.

I absolutely loved this book - so fitting giving the current state of the world. A twist that makes the book all that more intense truly makes this a page turner.

Phew, Donoghue can certainly write across genres!! It was interesting reading about a pandemic while in a pandemic. I had a hard time getting into this book, but I am glad I stuck with it.