The Pull of the Stars is set over three days in a Dublin hospital, in 1918. The city is in chaos, four years into the First World War, still reeling from the 1916 Easter Rising and now struck by the influenza epidemic. The city is unrecognisable to someone like myself, living there in 2020, but some things are now more familiar than I'd like: the masks, the notices on public transport, the flinching away from anyone who coughs near you. While this novel was written before the COVID 19 breakout, the release this year feels like uncanny timing.

Nurse Power goes to work the day before her 30th birthday, leaving her shell shocked younger brother to look after the house they share, with no idea how significant these days will be. She works in a tiny, temporary ward for expectant mothers who have influenza. When she arrives, shes told she is acting ward sister for the day. The only help she has is a brash porter, an absent and overworked doctor, and a young woman who comes in to help as a runner, Bridie. Soon, Julia Power's world narrows down to the women fighting for their lives and their babies lives on the ward. The more experienced nurses and doctors are either nowhere to be found, as the hospital threatens to crack under pressure, or they offer advice without listening to Nurse Power or the patients themselves. Only Dr Kathleen Lynn seems to have the patient's best interests at heart, though she is gossiped about as a lady doctor and a revolutionary.

I loved reading this particular point of view, the sensible, brave nurse who is only recovering from the flu herself before stretching herself thin, and the sister of an Irishman, Tim, who fought for England to help the Home Rule case, turning her nose up at the rebels. This is quite a different view to what I grew up with, where the Rising was glorified, but you can see how this put the city under even more strain at the time. She can't understand Dr Lynn's part in it, and though feels closer to this woman as time goes on, who wanted to set up a hospital for the poor.

Julia is already well versed in how poverty has affected the lives of her patients, especially the mothers on their twelfth pregnancies despite complications with earlier births. She knows also about the trouble at home rich and poor women can have with abusive families, and throughout the course of the book becomes all to aware of the evils that happen behind the closed doors of Church institutions.

Her friendship with Bridie quickly develops through their dependence on one another, and the two women realise the depths of their feelings towards one another as Bridie tells Julia about her life as a boarder with the nuns. This is possibly the most striking part of the book; before this Julia was telling Bridie "obvious" things about the body and the world, but the reader sees in real time how all the things that Julia feels she knows about life, as a worldly nurse, feel no longer true, and her worldview is changed forever.

This is an incredibly engaging book, and after hooking me with a great story and compelling characters, made me think differently to that political moment in history, how the epidemic was managed by the government, how the poor are disproportionately affected and how women through history have had to fight, not in the battlefield, but in hospitals and in the home, and how people have struggled for years while hidden away in institutions. I felt deeply sad after finishing as this is just one story of so many, and how these problems are not safely in the past, but must be faced, bravely, every day.

I would recommend this novel to fans of "The Wonder", as well as "Dear Mrs Bird" or "Life After Life". It is absolutely one of my favorite reads of this year, and such a timely and necessary read for our times. While the novel is upsetting in places, it shows us that there are unprecedented moments throughout history, but they too can pass, and humankind have survived so much, we will survive this too.

Initial Thoughts upon Finishing
UM WOW. This blew me away?!? I can't even work out why this was so brilliant?! I'm seriously amazed. This is my first Donoghue book and oh my god I feel like I'm re-entering the world for the first time since I picked this up. I couldn't stop reading this even though the scope of the plot is quite small, spanning only a handful of days in a maternity ward. AH. This was simply brilliant, what else can I say.

The Pull of the Stars
This story is set in 1918 during the height of the Spanish Flu. It follows a (nearly) thirty-year-old woman called Julia who lives in Dublin and works in the hospital as a nurse. She lives with her brother, Tim, who was injured fighting in the war and is now a mute. Julia is taking care of the influenza maternity ward (pregnant women who also have the flu). When the nurse in charge (yes there is an official term for that but shhh) takes ill, it's up to Julia to roll up her sleeves and try to manage all the trials of the maternity ward alone, until a volunteer called Bridie is recruited in to help her.

The story is gripping, realistic, terrifying and harrowingly relatable to our current situation. With the story only spanning a few days, a lot of detail is poured into the character development of Julia and individual cases that come into her ward. We follow her journey as she does her best to manage all the curveballs that tricky pregnancies throw her way. It is quite literally impossible to put down and not a particularly long book either: I found myself finishing this within a small number of sittings.

Why I Loved This
Firstly, for the pace of the plot and how interesting it was. I could not work out for the life of me why, at 50% through, when the story had gone no further than one day on the maternity ward, what was so damn interesting and addictive about it?? BUT OH BOY - have you ever watched Call the Midwife? And you just can't stop watching? The horror! The joy! The stress! The excitement! All heightened in the setting of a war and a global pandemic.

But secondly, the characters of Julia and Bridie were incredible. I can practically see and hear them. I feel intimately familiar with all their mannerisms and who they are as people. Donoghue has woven these characters to life with words in a way I never thought possible. If I bumped into Julia on my way to work one morning, I wouldn't be at all surprised. She's just so real and relatable to me, especially with the subtle but continuous toying with whether she should be stressed about turning thirty or whether that was okay (not that I'm turning thirty yet but still, getting older and being single/childless feels like a TIME PRESSURE PEOPLE).

Why It's So Good
I think these two things combined (great characters and a short timeline) made the whole thing seem so much more intimate. Instead of exploring the atrocious situation of the poor (a massive topic), which is heavily alluded to throughout the story, we focus on just one very specific element of that reality: pregnancy.

We become intensely familiar with the setting of the story and it's done a great job to pique the reader's interest in the living conditions of the poor in 1918. You find yourself so invested in the history of this time because the personal and specific examples of a mother enduring her twelfth pregnancy, or a girl giving birth for the first time at way too young of an age, just sucks you in and makes you want to explore more.

It's masterfully done to really make you connect with the emotions that Julia's is feeling. This is also some queer representation within this story (FF relationship) which is worth noting. Whilst it doesn't take centre stage it's certainly a great element of this story that completes the picture.

Summary
I clearly need to read more of Donoghue's writing. Overall this was brilliant and I dumbstruck by how much I enjoyed this. The rises and falls of the plot's climaxes rush you through the story in a good way. You're lulled into a sense of security with a nice scene and then the pace is ramped right up with a dramatic, stressful scene a few pages later. This book is impossible to not love and binge.

An extraordinary book where we get right inside the head of nurse Julia Power as she single-handedly cares for the woman on this Dublin maternity ward who also have Spanish flu. Every action, every decision, every feeling is described during 2 intense days. The doctor on call is not only a woman, not usual in 1918, but on the side of the rebels. She and the volunteer ward assistant, Bridie, change Julia’s life forever in unexpected ways. Life-affirming, tragic, wonderful, it’s all of this, and stayed with me for a long time.

Set in a maternity ward during a flu epidemic Julia, a nurse, and Bridie, who was brought up in care, work together to try to save the lives of mothers and babies in their care.
Reading this during the current pandemic could make it difficult for some readers and I would suggest anyone with a pregnancy in the family waits till after the birth as parts can be traumatic.
Having said that I got very involved in the two ladies’ lives as well as Tim Julia’s brother suffering from shell shock.

I was really looking forward to reading this having read ‘Room’, which I had mixed thoughts about. However, I really enjoyed this, if that’s an appropriate thing to say. There is some familiarity about it as not only is it set of a specific period of time but takes place territory during the 1918 Flu pandemic (of which we now know more given our own present pandemic). It follows Nurse Julia Power who is in charge of a three-bed maternity ward. Donoghue is at her best when she is confined to a tiny space and I really felt the intensity of the relationships between the patients and staff and life and death. I'd recommend this for any Donoghue fans but especially for those new to her.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC

An incredibly prescient novel which is set over three days in Dublin during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Reading this during lockdown, this stunning piece of writing held a unique resonance for me as Emma Donoghue has captured the zeitgeist a century later. I am a huge fan of Emma Donoghue's writing and as with all her novels, this is meticulously researched, beautifully evocative and compelling reading. Thank you Netgalley for the advance review copy.

“I felt I was adrift in a leaking boat with these strangers, waiting out a storm.”

This is a fantastic, powerfully empathetic novel, a moving story of coming together through trial, helping and loving each other despite hardship, and holding strong in the face of complete desperation.

It’s 1918 and an influenza pandemic is running rife across an already war-weary Ireland. Julia Power is a midwife in a hospital utterly overrun in the crisis. The staff numbers are dwindling as doctors and nurses themselves succumb to the dreadful illness, while the patient numbers soar, leaving those staff remaining stretched dreadfully. Julia finds herself on her own in charge of the maternity fever ward, with nothing but a fresh volunteer without an ounce of knowledge or experience, in Bridie Sweeney. Julia and Bridie battle together with death, ‘the bone man’, and try to save their patients as best they can with occasional help from the rebel Doctor Lynn. This felt like a hectic race of a read; while the characters raced and battled to save lives I felt completely along with the journey and couldn’t put it down. I loved the character of Bridie, the young woman without any training whatsoever but reams of energy and optimism despite the hellish, desperate circumstances of the improvised fever maternity ward, and a terribly deprived background. What a girl to have on your side in a crisis! The struggle felt almost impossible, as if there was little to be done to ‘influence the stars’ but the characters tried their utmost anyway, and loved for what moments they could. I’m a little bit heartbroken by this book after finishing it, it was that good! And given current circumstances, I think this book has a lot to say and learn from.

Thank you to the publisher, Pan Macmillan, and #Netgalley for the arc to review.

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This was my second Donoghue and I enjoyed it as well. This book takes place in Dublin during Spanish flu. It's a bit slow going until the end, but nevertheless very well written and emotional.

I enjoyed my time, and if you're interested in the blurb, it's a good one.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Such a great book, loved it, devoured in one sitting. The accuracy and details were frighteningly good. Reading whilst in a current pandemic gave further affection to this book. The strange advice given by the Irish government back then made me laugh, off to eat an onion and drink some whisky!

Looking at the title alone you might not think that this is “a book for our times”. But in this latest Donoghue historical novel we are taken to Dublin in October 1918 – and the midst of the “Great Flu Epidemic” – the mythical “Bone Man” is therefore collecting thousands of people. To offset the disastrous scale of the impact at the time Donoghue is presenting us with just four days through the eyes of a (youngish) nurse Julia Power who works in maternity services.
In the introduction Julia is travelling to work by bicycle and bus from the home she shares with her brother – who is still suffering injuries both mental and physical from his time on the Western Front. He has a small pension but even with their joint incomes money is tight and life is sparse at the best of times. But in addition to that, the speed and severity of the pandemic is starting to have a major impact on basic ways of life, with increasing shortages, of food, utilities, transport and people for many essential roles. This is adding to the difficulties and distress that more and more families were facing with the loss of loved ones.
The hospital is swamped with the ill and dying, but “ordinary” medical requirements have not stopped. Nobody really knows what the impact the disease will have on flu victims or their unborn babies. Julia will be told that she will have to run a small “overflow” ward with just three beds. Apart from a nun who “mans” the nightshift, she is required to do this alone, that is until a young, untrained volunteer, Bridie, from the religious “home” nearby, appears to help. Doctors are in short supply and often inexperienced. Donoghue will introduce a woman Doctor Lynne. But she is based on real life – someone involved in the 1916 rising, until with concern over security issues rising, she will be re-arrested in the hospital and cease to provide critical medical support.
Just as the current Coronavirus has directed a not particularly flattering spotlight on the failures of our social systems – so Donoghue will use this novel to do the same on the medical and social practices and attitudes in 1918 Dublin. Even before the flu pandemic it would not have been pleasant to watch or indeed to be subject to at times of vulnerability. Expect detailed depictions of the risks and realities of maternity practices in the time before antibiotics when large numbers of mothers and babies died. Add the realities of the flu – in the midst of a pandemic with overrun services - and the uneasiness increases. She will explore the realities of trying to treat people with this deadly disease – a disease that could kill rapidly, but one that was both little understood and had little effective treatment other than trying to bolster the resistance of those ill with food, drink and failing medical supplies.
Behind that of course, then as now, people continued their lives as usual as far as possible – often developing a new resilience for the good of others, or to their own agenda. Donoghue has not forgotten that the First World War had also laid down layers of distressed and damaged people already trying to cope with that too. Life is not single layered. In addition nursing was often peopled with nuns and other religious working to their own agendas. Groups who ran powerful institutions but held a strong broader social sway and influence. Many readers will have already heard of the harshness and iniquities of many of these places that were supposed to be refuges for the vulnerable. Through Bridie in particular deeper the truths of the matter – both physical and in ethos – and the reality of those places will be explored. For one short night Julia and Bridie will find comfort in the quiet presence of the other – even in this extremely challenging place and time – but that cannot last.
It should be said that this is not a novel for those lacking a strong stomach, because Donoghue does not pull any punches. Albeit (a minor criticism) it might be that she has a slightly benevolent view of a hospital of this time in crisis and is not harsh enough. But she is a consummate writer and her ability to present history in a way that is both visceral and relevant is unmatched. With her fluent writing style that draws the reader along, and into her places, this is another very fine novel.

Remarkable coincidence that this novel, set during the time of the Spanish flu pandemic, should come out when the world is in the middle of another brutal pandemic, Covid-19, making Emma Donoghue’s depiction of a virus-infested world all-the-more resonant. This novel is not for the faint-hearted with its vivid depiction of a maternity ward, described as an ‘antichamber of hell’, and lest we forget the (at times) macabre experience of childbirth, Donoghue’s mellifluous prose hones in unabashedly, reminding us of the cruelty of a society where a woman’s love for her husband is judged by how many children she bares for him. I found this gothic-style vignette of chauvinistic and intolerant early 20th Century Dublin engrossing and incredibly moving at times, and believe it is a novel that will linger in my mind for some time to come.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue is set in Dublin during the Spanisg Flu pandemic. It focuses on burse Julia serving on a maternity over the course of 3 days. I was very excited to receive this early copy as I have enjoyed previous books by Donoghue however I really did not enjoy this book. I found it very slow moving for the majority of the story until the final few chapters where it was crammed with content. I found the last incidents of the book unbelievable and overall I'd find it hard to recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC

This was an absolute rollercoaster of a book. Set in 1918 in an Irish hospital, Julia is a nurse thrown in at the deep end running a tiny ward for pregnant women during the influenza pandemic. It is gripping and visceral, with in depth details of labour and death. She struggles to do her best, aided by a volunteer from the local convent. It touches on the horrors of medical care before widespread antibiotics and vaccinations, the difficulties women faced becoming doctors and being trusted to know what is best for their bodies, in every sense. The book mentions the widespread domestic abuse and institutional abuse of the time, and the lack of power and agency most women had in their lives. It sounds depressing, but there are glimpses of hope, reminding me of Room. I literally could not put this book down, and reading it during a pandemic just added even more layers.

The Pull of the Stars takes place during 1918, the time of the Spanish Flu and World War one. I found it quite a difficult read, history is not my favourite genre but I always enjoy Emma Donahues writing. It's topical right now with our current situation. If you're into history them you'll enjoy this book.

The reviews really helped me prepare for reading this book! I was emotionally invested throughout and exhausted by the end...

Brilliantly absorbs you into a time that I knew nothing about previously.

Also, very prescient what with the current COVID-19 situation. I automatically drew similarities between the Spanish Flu pandemic and the current situation.

Read this when you can give it your full attention.

Thank you for the ARC.

A very strong 4.5!

The setting is bleak, a hospital in 1918 Dublin during the Spanish influenza and World War I, there’s also the shadow of the Irish fight for independence and tensions between Catholics and Protestants looming large. Donoghue paints a detailed and believable picture of this time and it was interesting to see the parallels between 1918 and today. It’s a rather timely novel.

We follow the sole nurse working on a maternity/fever (pregnant women with the Spanish flu) ward over 3 days. Those three days are incredibly eventful as life comes and goes from the ward. Heart wrenching moments are followed directly by moments of success and joy, while you could guess at the direction of the story you never quite know how exactly it’s going to unfold.

The novel is largely female driven with a number of expectant mothers, an untrained volunteer assisting the nurse and the inclusion of a real historical character in Dr Kathleen Lynn. They represent several different areas of society. These are all complex characters who have been beaten down time and time again by a situation out of their control but somehow they keep on going, trying to do what they think is best for others.

This book requires you invest a lot, at times almost too much, but for me that’s what made this reading experience.

This book hit home on so many levels. It is set at the time of a pandemic in the early 20th century which obviously echoes the situation we are in today. being pregnant as well this book gave an indication of what I'll expect to go through in a few weeks. it was a beautiful fantastic and excellent read.

When she set her latest novel in the middle of the 'Spanish flu' outbreak at the end of World War I, Emma Donoghue couldn't possibly have imagined it would be so relevant and timely when published in summer 2020. No doubt this unexpected coincidence will add to its appeal as books dealing with plagues have become popular as people turn to literature to make sense of current events. But it would be a shame to simply dismiss any success as lucky timing - this is a really excellent novel regardless of when a reader comes to it.

It is set over just three days in 1918 Dublin. The point of view character is Julia Power, a midwife about to turn 30, and struggling in an understaffed hospital full of flu patients. She finds herself in charge of a small ward of women who are both pregnant and suffering from the virus, with only a young girl to assist her who has never worked in a hospital before. Meanwhile, the lady doctor (a rarity in those days) who has been drafted in turns out to be wanted by the police for her role in the Easter uprising.

It's natural to look for the parallels with the Covid-19 lockdown, and there are certainly some. But most of the action is centred on the ward itself, rather than the experiences of ordinary civilians. Its depictions of events on the wards - sometimes mundane, sometimes dramatic - are completely convincing and it is extremely compelling. I read it very fast, even delaying watching the next episode of my favourite TV show to keep reading. The characters are likeable, beautifully drawn and realistic. The depictions of birth, death and medical procedures are vivid without being gratuitous and make for gripping reading.

Plot wise, the medical dramas of the patients alone are enough to keep you absorbed, but there's plenty more to it than that. In fact, the plot took an unexpected turn that I hadn't seen coming. A reading group could find a good session's worth of discussion topics here - hierarchical societies, Irish independence, women's rights, health inequalities, whether violence is justified to use in any cause, etc. etc,. Don't think this is some sort of worthy tome though - it's really not. These topics are touched on but 'shown' not 'told'. It is really just a fantastic, readable, absorbing story. Fiction at its best.

The parts about the impact of flu - and childbirth - on women already weakened by poverty now seem shockingly prescient. The tragedy is that more than 100 years after the book is set, those inequalities still exist. Both the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests have thrown stark light on how your chances of surviving a severe viral illness, or childbirth, depend very much on your life circumstances. Some elements of the story you can think 'thank goodness it's not like that now' but all too much of it you feel ashamed to realise we haven't moved on that much at all.

This is sure to be one of the best books I read this year, and one of Donoghue's best. Highly recommended to all readers.

A prescient novel, written before the current Covid 19 outbreak, The Pull of the Stars has startling parallels between the Spanish Flu in 1918 and our life today. Set in a maternity hospital in Dublin and spanning only three days, this novel gallops along and sweeps you into a time and place where life was precarious and revolution was in the air. I can’t recommend this novel highly enough -Emma Donough is an impressive author.

In the opening scene of Emma Donoghue's eerily prescient new novel, set in early twentieth-century Dublin during a flu pandemic, a man hawks up phlegm on the floor of a tram carrying commuters to work.
'Ye might as well have sprayed us with bullets!' moans one of the passengers. And here we are again. I wonder whether if this were set in a future dystopia rather than the past, it would have been even stronger, but of course Donoghue had no idea about the pandemic at the time of writing and, as the novel shows, the past has its own echoes and eerie similarities to today (including a culture of victim-blaming, which particularly boils the heroine's blood when she sees posters blaming the sick for their own deaths).

Because of its similarity to COVID-19, some of the details in The Pull of the Stars have the immediacy of Room - which was inspired by contemporary news stories as well as the author's experience of motherhood.
However, this is also the more historical, romantic Emma Donoghue of Slammerkin, Hood, The Wonder and most recently Akin - taking on questions of family, love and passion between women (nice to see some of that back)! while continuing to be fascinated by the collision between science and religion, medical practicality and the unseen workings of the Universe (the 'stars' of the title, which reference mortality as well as romance).

To some extent this duality is mirrored in the book, with the first two thirds an earthbound look at the dullness as well as the drama of giving birth during a flu pandemic. The three women the heroine Julia is entrusted with all have difficult labours, and sometimes the depictions are eye-watering - when a porter tells Julia that women don't pay the 'blood tax' of war, she asks him to look at her ward. However, the last third is heightened, dramatic, feverish - appropriately so - as Julia struggles to hold onto the love she's only just found.

Definitely vintage Donoghue, 'Room' may have been a one-off in the chords it struck around the world, but in a writer this good, there's no need to complain about a return to form.