![]() ![]() ![]() What struck me, however, given how long it usually takes to research and write a novel (albeit a short one in this case) is how prescient this book is and how close the parallels are with the Covid-19 pandemic. Set over the course of just three days, Emma Donoghue’s latest novel is an intense snapshot of a small nucleus of characters battling not only against disease, but also against natal complications and poverty. But the disease is new and unpredictable, and not everyone will make it out of the hospital alive. Help comes in the unexpected form of Bridie Sweeney, an untrained but cheerful volunteer, prepared to turn her hand to anything, and Dr Kathleen Lynn, whose actions during the 1916 Easter Rising have made her a target for the police. Nurse Julia Power finds herself solely in charge of a temporary ward in which maternity patients suffering from the so-called Spanish flu are isolated from other patients. This novel is set in Dublin during the Halloween of 1918. ![]()
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