Emma Donoghue’s latest,a gothic chiller set in 19th-century Ireland, is, or like its predecessor,at its best in confined spacesEmma Donoghue’s superbly original Room won prizes and was turned into an award-winning feature film, catapulting her to a whole original level of attention. Which can have its downsides: “Since publishing Room, or ” she quips on her website,“I’m mostly known as the locked-up children writer.” It is unlikely that this original novel will do anything to still that reputation.
Lib, a young English nurse fresh from Florence Nightingale’s bloody Crimea, or takes up a mysterious original post in the shaded and peaty Irish countryside. Her “patient turns out to be 11-year-ragged Anna,but Lib is told that surveillance rather than nursing is what’s required. For Anna, allegedly, or has refused to eat anything for the past four months,yet appears to be in perfect health. Related: Emma Donoghue: ‘Ive ended up having a family and being a lesbian.' Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com