marvellous creations

Acclaimed author Emma Donoghue introduces her new novel – and our latest Book of the Month.

This month we can’t put down The Wonder by Irish author Emma Donoghue (who you may know as the Oscar-nominated author and screenwriter of Room). Set in a pious Irish village in the 1850s, her new book is a suspenseful tale of a girl’s mysterious (to some, miraculous) claim that she can survive without nourishment. English nurse Lib is sent to monitor the girl, determined to expose the truth

THE WONDER IS INSPIRED BY CASES OF “FASTING GIRLS” BETWEEN THE 16TH AND 20TH CENTURIES – USUALLY PRE-ADOLESCENTS WHO CLAIMED THEY COULD SURVIVE WITHOUT FOOD AND, IN SOME CASES, HAD RELIGIOUS POWERS. WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO TURN THESE CASES INTO A BOOK?

I came across a “fasting girl” case at least 20 years ago, and it was one of those little historical nuggets that struck me as fascinating. Some were obvious chancers who got found out – one was sent to hospital and was found sneaking buns in her pillow. But then there were really tragic cases where, when put under surveillance, they’d start pining away and sometimes die. A couple of years ago it occurred to me that I could do a fictional version and, given I had a choice of where to set it, I thought, it’s got to be Ireland. I’ve been gone a long time – since I was 20 – but I never lost my connection, and it has such a fraught history with hunger. So there’s a contrast between the voluntary not-eating of a “fasting girl” and the involuntary not-eating of a whole people being starved during famine.

WHERE DO YOU EVEN FIND THESE SNIPPETS? IT SEEMS LIKE IT’D BE A TINY NEWS ARTICLE IN A CENTURIES-OLD NEWSPAPER, STUFFED AWAY IN AN OLD LIBRARY SOMEWHERE.

Often I’ve drawn on the work of other people, like a historian, and then read a collection of essays about the era. I think what I’m really good at is glimpsing the fiction, in particular the little cases that historians are never really going to be able to explain. I also had strong memories of the little statuettes of my childhood. I had a little hollow statuette of, I think, St Teresa and during Lent, when I would give up sweets, if anyone offered me even one square of chocolate I’d take it home and store it inside the statue.

KIND OF LIKE THE TREASURES PROTAGONIST ANNA KEEPS IN A BOX IN HER ROOM – HER ROSARY BEADS AND HOLY CARDS. DID YOUR IRISH HERITAGE MAKE RESEARCHING THE BOOK EASIER?

It helped me get the dialogue right, because that’s difficult to research. If I were suddenly setting a novel in Jamaica, I couldn’t just turn on the patois. In terms of the cultural details, I had to do a lot of research. Having grown up in Ireland in the ’70s, even the version of Catholicism I grew up with was very different and much milder than the hardcore rules of the 19th century.

ANOTHER THING YOU’VE NAILED IS YOUR ABILITY TO MAKE A SMALL SPACE INTERESTING – FIRST IN ROOM, AND NOW AGAIN WITH THE WONDER.

Ha! When you say it like that, The Wonder sounds remarkably like Room, which didn’t occur to me at the time. I suppose, yes, I like a very small canvas. It might seem as if it’s easier to write something set in a big, interesting, varied world but, actually, if you’re setting a novel in New York City, for instance, in a way you’re tormented by choice. Likewise, if you’re writing about a character who’s 100 years old; they have so many memories. Anna has seen a few rivers, a few towns, but that’s it, so it’s easier to have a strong sense of her. Maybe I’m just a little unambitious as a writer, but I like to take on these narrow, confined settings because I find it’s a great way to build up tension. It’s a bit like a closed-room murder mystery in that everyone’s wondering: what’s the secret in the house? How is she managing to stay alive? q

The Wonder ($29.99, Picador) is out September 27