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Book Reviewed by:In Emma Donoghue's latest masterpiece, an English nurse brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle - a girl said to have survived without food for months - soon finds herself fighting to save the child's life.
Tourists flock to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, who believes herself to be living off manna from heaven, and a journalist is sent to cover the sensation. Lib Wright, a veteran of Florence Nightingale's Crimean campaign, is hired to keep watch over the girl.
Written with all the propulsive tension that made Room a huge bestseller, The Wonder works beautifully on many levels--a tale of two strangers who transform each other's lives, a powerful psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil.
The Wonder is a psychological enigma, fraught with mortal tension, that the reader solves alongside Lib. Donoghue raises compelling philosophical questions about free will, the extent to which a just society can tolerate religious zealotry, and the moral/ethical obligations of medical practitioners...continued
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(Reviewed by Lisa Butts).
The Wonder was inspired by several real-life instances of girls who claimed to be beyond the earthly requirement of eating. The tradition dates back to at least medieval times when it was common for devoutly religious women to abstain from food, among other essentials. Intermittent fasting is a common custom in many religions and viewed as a sign of pious constraint.
Historian Rudolph Bell coined the term "holy anorexia" to describe this practice, associated with the 13th and 14th-century saints, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Clare of Assisi, among others. St. Catherine was known for extreme fasts and reportedly suffered "grievous pains" when she was forced to eat. St. Clare commonly fasted three days out of the week.
Perhaps the ...
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