"More Water?" She offered the spoon. "Anna's eyelids flickered but didn't open; she shook her head. "Be it done to me".
This was not my first novel by Donoghue, and I couldn’t help myself from paralleling it with “Room”. Room being one of my favorite books, I had set some abnormal expectations from “The Wonder”; it was certainly something like I had not read before. It is a story showcasing the prominent line inflating between science and God and the calamities that come with being on the either side of it. Not being well aware of the Catholic faith, the bible scripture references took a while to grasp. Like “Room” it starts of with a tale in its own unreal bubble and before you know it, reality hits you and its hits you hard.
There have been a few instances about the fasting girls in early 1800s to 1900s, where pre pubescent girls have survived without any food and state that they have paranormal powers. Donoghue has fictionalized a similar incidence in “The Wonder”.
Set in the 1800s a few years after the potato famine in Ireland, and this small village had a new tourist attraction; 11-year of Anna, the miracle girl who had survived 4 months without food or any kind of nourishment and is still going strong. Lib – the confident and dedicated English nurse, brought in by the committee of the village to observe Anna, to catch the con hiding in plain sight.
As the watch began, Lib thought it would be easier than she thought since Anna looked well for a girl who was starving herself. Lib was convinced there was someone covertly feeding her this entire time. As days go by Anna keeps on thriving, asserting she is living off of “Manna from heaven” and a couple of spoons of water a day. As Anna’s condition started to subside and her body grew boney, Lib takes it upon herself to speed up the revelation of the hoax and do whatever she can to save the girl from herself, irrespective of what she was appointed to do.
This was not an easy book to get through. It starts off slow but picks up its pace before you realize it. Donoghue has intricately captured the lifestyle of a small Irish village in the1800s astonishingly well. The book inevitably divides itself into two very strong themes - faith and logic, where Lib is falling short on reality in a troop of people blinded by the power of God and religion. Anna’s journey through the fortnight was hard to get by. She is a strong willed intelligent girl overpowered by her belief. Seeing how a young girl, supported by her family, is lead to believe hunger has cemented her pathway to heaven is truly infuriating and unsettling at the same time. There were times where I wanted to knock some sense of reality into their minds just to save this little girl from doing such a dreadful thing.
Donoghue has the ability to pull you in completely with her remarkable way of storytelling. Her writing allows an elaborate theme to flow with such simplicity and ease. “The Wonder” will make you think. The reality of this unreal account will certainly linger around you for sometime.