-
The Pull of the Stars
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Emma Lowe
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $29.65
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Four Winds
- A Novel
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows.
-
-
✫✫ 4.75 Stars ✫✫
- By ❤️Cyndi Marie❤️🎧Audiobook Addicts🎧 on 02-03-21
By: Kristin Hannah
-
The Lincoln Highway
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car.
-
-
I'm totally opposite
- By Meaghan Bynum on 10-10-21
By: Amor Towles
-
A Million Things
- By: Emily Spurr
- Narrated by: Zenia Starr
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For as long as Rae can remember, it's been her and Mum, and their dog, Splinter; a small, deliberately unremarkable family. They have their walks, their cooking routines, their home. Sometimes Mum disappears for a while to clear her head, but Rae is okay with this because Mum always comes back. So, when Rae wakes to Splinter's nose in her face, the back door open, and no Mum, she does as she’s always done and carries on. She tends to the house, goes to school, walks Splinter, and minds her own business - all the while pushing down the truth she isn't ready to face.
-
-
Beautiful and heartbreaking
- By Amazon Customer on 09-04-21
By: Emily Spurr
-
The Lost Orphan
- By: Stacey Halls
- Narrated by: Imogen Church, Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate newborn at the Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the daughter she has never known. Dreading the worst, that she has died in care, she is astonished to discover someone pretending to be Bess has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside-down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why.
-
-
Thoroughly enjoyed 💜
- By I love to shop 💜 on 02-15-21
By: Stacey Halls
-
Miss Benson's Beetle
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Joyce
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and small existence to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist - the golden beetle of New Caledonia. When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind.
-
-
A well-written panorama of human tragedy
- By Film Fan on 07-03-21
By: Rachel Joyce
-
Room
- A Novel
- By: Emma Donoghue
- Narrated by: Michal Friedman, Ellen Archer, Robert Petkoff, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him.
-
-
Brought Room and the outside world to Life
- By Daryl on 07-09-14
By: Emma Donoghue
-
The Four Winds
- A Novel
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows.
-
-
✫✫ 4.75 Stars ✫✫
- By ❤️Cyndi Marie❤️🎧Audiobook Addicts🎧 on 02-03-21
By: Kristin Hannah
-
The Lincoln Highway
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car.
-
-
I'm totally opposite
- By Meaghan Bynum on 10-10-21
By: Amor Towles
-
A Million Things
- By: Emily Spurr
- Narrated by: Zenia Starr
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For as long as Rae can remember, it's been her and Mum, and their dog, Splinter; a small, deliberately unremarkable family. They have their walks, their cooking routines, their home. Sometimes Mum disappears for a while to clear her head, but Rae is okay with this because Mum always comes back. So, when Rae wakes to Splinter's nose in her face, the back door open, and no Mum, she does as she’s always done and carries on. She tends to the house, goes to school, walks Splinter, and minds her own business - all the while pushing down the truth she isn't ready to face.
-
-
Beautiful and heartbreaking
- By Amazon Customer on 09-04-21
By: Emily Spurr
-
The Lost Orphan
- By: Stacey Halls
- Narrated by: Imogen Church, Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate newborn at the Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the daughter she has never known. Dreading the worst, that she has died in care, she is astonished to discover someone pretending to be Bess has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside-down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why.
-
-
Thoroughly enjoyed 💜
- By I love to shop 💜 on 02-15-21
By: Stacey Halls
-
Miss Benson's Beetle
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Joyce
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and small existence to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist - the golden beetle of New Caledonia. When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind.
-
-
A well-written panorama of human tragedy
- By Film Fan on 07-03-21
By: Rachel Joyce
-
Room
- A Novel
- By: Emma Donoghue
- Narrated by: Michal Friedman, Ellen Archer, Robert Petkoff, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him.
-
-
Brought Room and the outside world to Life
- By Daryl on 07-09-14
By: Emma Donoghue
-
The Poison Thread
- A Novel
- By: Laura Purcell
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle, Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy, and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor, and awaiting trial for murder. When Dorothea's charitable work brings her to Oakgate Prison, she is delighted by the chance to explore her fascination with phrenology and test her hypothesis that the shape of a person's skull can cast a light on their darkest crimes. But when she meets one of the prisoners, the teenaged seamstress Ruth, she is faced with another strange idea.
-
-
Well told gothic story good narrators
- By ReallyNelie on 08-10-19
By: Laura Purcell
-
The Weight of Ink
- By: Rachel Kadish
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 23 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the London of the 1660s and of the early 21st century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city, and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history. As the novel opens, Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of 17th-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation.
-
-
Life's too short and I am too old
- By Teacher Lady (Deanna Nech) on 12-12-18
By: Rachel Kadish
-
The Orphan House
- Absolutely Gripping and Heartbreaking Historical Fiction
- By: Ann Bennett
- Narrated by: Naomi Frederick
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Jennings knows there’s one place she can go to find some peace and quiet during her difficult divorce. But arriving at her beloved father’s home in the countryside, she finds him unwell and hunched over boxes of files, studying the records from Cedar Hall, the crumbling orphanage in town. He says that hidden behind the wrought iron gates and overgrown ivy are secrets about their family, and he asks for her help.
-
-
The Orphan House
- By Sylvia Sue Wilson on 04-22-20
By: Ann Bennett
-
The Great Influenza
- The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the winter of 1918, at the height of World War I, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision between modern science and epidemic disease.
-
-
Gripping and Gory
- By Nancy on 07-01-08
By: John M. Barry
-
The Great Believers
- By: Rebecca Makkai
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
-
-
A story for all time
- By Amazon Customer on 08-06-18
By: Rebecca Makkai
-
Surviving Savannah
- By: Patti Callahan
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Catherine Taber, Patti Callahan
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Savannah history Professor Everly Winthrop is asked to guest-curate a new museum collection focusing on artifacts recovered from the steamship Pulaski, she's shocked. The ship sank after a boiler explosion in 1838, and the wreckage was just discovered, 180 years later. Everly can't resist the opportunity to try to solve some of the mysteries and myths surrounding the devastating night of its sinking. Everly's research leads her to the astounding history of a family of 11 who boarded the Pulaski together, and the extraordinary stories of two women from this family.
-
-
Leave history as it is. Can't be changed.
- By lonesomdov99 on 04-30-21
By: Patti Callahan
-
What Once Was True
- By: Jean Grainger
- Narrated by: Caroline Lennon
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robinswood, Co. Waterford, 1939. The once grand house is home to two very different families. Despite delusions of grandeur, Lord and Lady Kenefick and their adult children live a life of decayed opulence as the money needed to keep such a large house and grounds ever dwindles. Meanwhile, the Murphy family, Dermot, Isabella and their three almost grown-up girls, live and work on the estate and do their best to keep everything running smoothly.
-
-
I throughly enjoyed every minute of this book
- By paula wright on 09-16-20
By: Jean Grainger
-
The Glass Ocean
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, Saskia Maarleveld, Brittany Pressley
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century - two deep in the past, one in the present - to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.... Her finances are in dire straits, and best-selling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. What she discovers there could change history.
-
-
I enjoyed this book, at least most of it.
- By Kevin Greaser on 10-02-18
By: Beatriz Williams, and others
-
Of Another Time and Place
- By: Brad Schaeffer
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While on a brief leave home from the deadly skies of World War II, a decorated German flying ace must decide between conscience and country when his courageous fiancé reveals her potentially deadly secret she's been keeping right under the nose of the SS. Rachael Azerod, a New York reporter, flies to London to interview Harmon Becker, the former German WW II hero whom Hitler himself awarded the highest honors - but she has her own reasons for meeting.
-
-
Really enjoyed this one!
- By S. Ford on 12-26-19
By: Brad Schaeffer
-
The Cape Doctor
- By: E. J. Levy
- Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in Cork, Ireland, the novel recounts Perry’s journey from daughter to son in order to enter medical school and provide for family, but Perry soon embraced the newfound freedom of living life as a man. From brilliant medical student in Edinburgh and London to eligible bachelor and quick-tempered physician in Cape Town, Dr. Perry thrived.
-
-
Absolutely adored this story - beautifully written
- By TJReads on 09-09-21
By: E. J. Levy
-
The German Midwife
- By: Mandy Robotham
- Narrated by: Julia Winwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Germany, 1944. Taken from the camps to serve the Führer himself, Anke Hoff is assigned as midwife to one of Hitler’s inner circle. If she refuses, her family will die. Torn between her duty as a caregiver and her hatred for the Nazi regime, Anke is swept into a life unlike anything she’s ever known - and she discovers that many of those at the Berghof are just as trapped as she is. And soon, she’s falling for a man who will make her world more complicated still.
-
-
Call the Midwife fans: READ THIS
- By Jaymee O on 09-23-19
By: Mandy Robotham
-
Call the Midwife
- A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
- By: Jennifer Worth
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the age of 22, Jennifer Worth left her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in postwar London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she met while delivering babies all over London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lived to the woman with 24 children who couldn't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side - illuminate a fascinating time in history.
-
-
The best book I've listened to this year
- By Richard on 06-12-13
By: Jennifer Worth
Publisher's Summary
In Dublin, 1918, a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, in "Donoghue's best novel since Room" (Kirkus Reviews).
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders - Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumored Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.
In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other's lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.
In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.

Editor's Pick
Yes, please.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Pull of the Stars
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Liana Murzak
- 07-29-20
A compelling that relates to today’s times
I’ve never really listened to/read a book like this and it was a gut wrenching experience. The Pull of the Stars follows a nurse treating patients in a maternity ward during the Spanish Influenza, almost 100 years ago exactly! And even then, when they couldn’t see the virus (a strong enough microscope hadn’t been invented yet), people were afraid, and cautious, and they cared about the lives of their countrymen. The present day United States has all the resources to prevent the majority of tragedies that occurred in this book, and yet we are killing ourselves due to apathy. Nurse Julia and her runner Bridie work tirelessly for three days trying to save their patients and their babies, one of the most at risk populations (then and now). The emotions are high, hopes are dashed and then renewed over and over again. The Pull of the Stars is gruesome, and painful, and horrifying, and utterly so worth the read/listen.
Only wish there was less horrid singing (just a few lines is a few lines too many) & be prepared to skip back a few times since the accent is sort of thick at times!
31 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Barbara S
- 10-03-20
Fantastic listen
Author Emma Donoghue decided to honor the century mark of the Spanish Flu pandemic in 2018. She thoroughly researched the pandemic, wanting the novel to be an authentic historical fiction story that reflected reality. Her final draft was completed in March 2020, at the beginning of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Her publishers fast-tracked the publication. Unbeknownst to Donoghue, she caught the fear, frustration, and horror of that time that we are currently mirroring in this pandemic.
“Pull of the Stars” is a story of one nurse’s 3-day journey in a maternity ward. Julia Power is a midwife and a nurse who is about to turn 30 at the beginning of the story. She’s working in a former supply room that has been repurposed for a maternity ward for the expectant mothers who suffer the flu. Julia is “promoted” to lead nurse when there are no other staff available. Alone, she needs a runner/helper. In walks Bridie Sweeney, an orphan of the Catholic church, sent by the nuns.
We learn of the poverty of Ireland at that time. Julia’s patients are malnourished, underweight, and frail. Donoghue excels at character development. We come to care for these sad ladies in their hopeless lives. Donoghue knows how to write nuisances that occur in a one room setting. I was there, with her characters, feeling their horrors and frustrations. The birthing complications are written with realistic horror. Trying to work in a hospital over-run with pandemic victims provides the reader with empathy to our health care workers who work in exhausted settings.
Donoghue uses Bridie to illuminate the horrors of Catholic orphanages at that time. Bridie doesn’t even know her age or her birthday. She was indoctrinated that she owed the nuns for her upbringing and education. She is in perpetual servitude to the nuns. The Catholic Church doesn’t come out well in this novel, especially the nuns. Bridie’s character makes this novel a duel historical fiction story: the pandemic and the cruelties of Catholic nun orphanages.
I loved this story because I was totally engrossed. I could not stop listening to the audio of this novel. Emma Lowe was superb in performance (although I wasn’t a fan of her singing voice LOL). Her voice added dimension to the story.
I highly rate the audio because In Emma Lowe’s voice, I felt like I was there with the characters. And of course the story that Donoghue created is amazing.
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Melissa
- 09-18-20
A great book until homosexuality was thrown in
I loved learning about this time period and the pandemic from a nurse's point of view, but was disgusted and felt like it was out of left field when the main character had a homosexual encounter. it came out of nowhere and ruined a good book for me.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gina LS
- 08-30-20
Could not stop listening.
At the start of the pandemic, the current one here in 2020, I purchased The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry. I read it cover to cover: the biology, physiology, politics, and overwhelming tallies of those afflicted. In 500 pages of that book, I was never once as shaken, astounded, or as deeply impacted as I was by this story. This story is a prime example of why the genre of historical fiction is so invaluable. Donoghue's writing never shies away from the realities or horrors or ugliness of a situation. And it never shies away from joy, passion, love, and all other deeply felt emotions. This story will stay with me, along with the brightness and hope that I imagine following the final scenes. Well done.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DC
- 09-01-20
Reality...
...in 1918 and the issues (flu, resistance to oppression, women's rights, healthcare) are all relevant to today. I loved this book but I am a female healthcare professional who has worked a lot with pregnant women. If you don't want to know any details about what pregnant women experienced 100 years ago (or, as my friend who declined to read this book said "I don't have a strong stomach"), it might not be for you. But none of the details are gratuitous, they are all relevant. I also loved that the woman doctor who was an Irish resistance fighter was a real, historical figure and heroine. If you choose this book, be SURE to listen to the afterword. Highly recommended.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jana S.
- 07-31-20
Story derailed toward end
I really enjoyed this book until the final quarter. The book took such an unexpected turn toward the end that I could imagine publishers saying ‘we need more here, how about adding something spicy!’ No spoilers, but the unexpected turn derailed the story and just didn’t make sense. The first three quarters of the book went one way and the last quarter went another. I did enjoy the historical detail.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R. Basey
- 08-03-20
Women / Nursing / Pandemic / Childbirth
I am surprised at how much I enjoyed this audiobook. The key word here is "enjoyed". It was truly a wonderful escape listening to the women working together. I loved it. Excellent character development.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Audible Fan
- 08-03-20
Strange turn in 4th part yet still a great book.
Overall I found this to be a very good book. It started a bit slowly yet drew me in . I could not stop listening and finished this title in less than 24 hours. The book is broken up into 4 parts and the first 3 parts were excellent. The fourth part did not seem to fit well with the previous 3 parts. Also the ending seemed to be not very well thought out. The story was great and the performance of the narrator was excellent. I would recommend this title as it was very good.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ginger 3701
- 07-23-20
At her best!!!
This excellent book is Emma Donahue at her very best! The story is uplifting and heartbreaking. The characters vividly drawn and with such depth. Heartbreaking that so many of the medical facts are true, aided by the very true story of Dr. Lynn. The narration is suburb, easily putting the listener right in the middle of the story. This book ranks right behind "Room" as Donahue's best.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anna
- 11-30-20
I give it 3.5 starts
3.5 stars A great book if you are really interested in maternity and delivery.
I thought the book was a lot more about the procedures in maternity and delivery nursing than it was in the pandemic. While interesting, for this non-medical person it was TMI.
I found the interactions and history of the 3 main women interesting. Tho the ending left me feeling "unfinished"
And of course the topic of the pandemic is very timely.
And who knew? Influenza - ‘blame the stars… thats what influenza means. influenza delle stelle - the influence of the stars. medieval italians thought the illness proved that the heavens were governing their fates.’
4 people found this helpful