The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Awesomely Narrated by: Emma Lowe; this audiobook was very interesting due to its similarities to the covid epidemic going on now. Taking place in 1918 in a suffocating small room of a hospital in Dublin, Ireland, Nurse Julia Power is dealing with WWI and the flu or grippe as it is known in Ireland. Assigned to labor and delivery, this room becomes at risk labor and delivery because the women have the flu in varying stages. I loved Lowe's voice as the rules bound but empathetic Julia as she journeys through three days in the room with the help of a volunteer Bridie Sweeney and a Dr. Linn, embattled by her past as a rebel. What transpires is three women who change each other in so many ways as they try to save lives and deliver babies as nuns judge and ridicule their patients, as Julia learns slowly about Bridie's awful life with the nuns as an orphan, and the constant spectre of Julia's brother traumatized so much by the war, he is mute. I loved this devastating book, Donoghue was excellent in her characterization, plot, and setting---all were pitch perfect! A must read/listen, readers will be filled with horror, hope and despair as three women's lives intersect during a pandemic that parallels our current Covid fears and frustrations.

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