The Wonder – Emma Donoghue (2016)

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue was published in 2016 and transports readers to the Irish Midlands in the year 1859. Best known for her bestselling novel Room, Donoghue in this work constructs a psychological and moral mystery rooted in real historical accounts of “fasting girls” – young women who claimed to survive without food for prolonged periods. The story follows a skeptical English nurse sent to observe an Irish girl purported to have survived without nourishment for four months. What unfolds is a deeply atmospheric exploration of faith, science, and the cost of belief.

Plot Summary

The train from London delivered Elizabeth Wright into the wet and unfamiliar lands of the Irish Midlands, where a jaunting car took her farther into the countryside. She arrived not at a hospital or manor house, but at a spirit grocery in a village sunken in summer hunger, its streets empty and eyes wary. Lib, as she was known, had trained under Florence Nightingale in the Crimea, and had been summoned here not for illness, but to observe a miracle: an eleven-year-old girl named Anna O’Donnell who had not eaten a morsel of food in four months.

Dr. McBrearty, the local physician, briefed her in a dim room above the shop, his face earnest beneath his whiskers. Anna, he claimed, subsisted on nothing but faith and water. The O’Donnell family insisted it was divine intervention. A committee had been formed, two nurses hired – one English, one Irish, to observe in alternating shifts. Lib was skeptical. Her duty, they said, was simply to watch.

She was brought to the O’Donnell cottage, a poor and pious place nestled beside the bog, shared by cows and humans, candles and crucifixes. Rosaleen O’Donnell welcomed her with open arms and a glowing smile full of holes, while Sister Michael, a nun from a nearby convent, stood quiet and solemn. The girl herself, Anna, sat small and pale, eyes wide, lips blue, her hands folded like porcelain.

Lib measured and studied her. The girl’s weight, height, and even her downy skin told a story different from her claims. She was not emaciated enough for four months without food. Yet she spoke clearly, moved with grace, and smiled with the ease of a child who believed she was blessed. Visitors came daily, pilgrims seeking miracles, pressing coins into a box for the poor, touching her hand, begging her to kiss their babies. Anna received them all with calm holiness.

Lib watched from morning till night. She catalogued each breath, each beat of the heart, each whispered prayer. Anna spoke to the saints, especially one named Dorothy, whose presence clung like a secret shadow. The child claimed she was full, though her belly was hollow as a drum. Her limbs swelled with fluid, and fine hairs grew along her arms – signs Lib recognized as starvation’s slow signature.

She spoke with William Byrne, a journalist investigating the case. He had roots in the village, and a sister buried not far off. They walked the bog paths, and he warned her not only of Anna’s condition, but of the zeal wrapped around her. The O’Donnells had invited the world to believe in a miracle, and now lived inside the myth they had spun. Lib began to suspect the girl was being fed secretly, perhaps at night by the maid Kitty, a cousin sleeping on a settle in the kitchen. But days passed, then a week, and no act of feeding was seen.

Anna’s health declined. Her legs grew thinner, her breath shallower. Lib confronted Rosaleen, who clung to faith like armor, insisting that Anna was chosen, that she needed no food, only God. Malachy, the father, offered little but stoic silence and the shadow of the Church. Lib appealed to Sister Michael, but the nun found no evidence of deceit, only purity. She, too, saw Anna as a vessel of grace.

A small cloth doll named Blessed Anna sat on the girl’s shelf, a token from the pilgrims. The line between child and saint blurred. The public’s hunger for wonder had devoured her. She could no longer speak of hunger or pleasure, only offering and sacrifice. Anna began to fade, speaking less, smiling through chapped lips, her eyes turned inward toward something invisible.

Lib grew desperate. She sensed the girl’s death approaching, and still no proof emerged. No secret feeding, no deception, only a child too devout, too innocent, too broken by belief. When Sister Michael fell ill and the night shift fell to Lib, she stayed beside the bed, sleepless, watching each breath grow lighter.

Anna confessed in fragments – not of eating, but of a vow made on her birthday to save her brother’s soul. Pat, who had molested her, was dead now, and she believed her fasting would deliver him from damnation. The truth struck Lib like a blow. Anna’s miracle was not divine, but an act of grief and guilt, shaped by the silence of her family and the reverence of a village.

Lib saw the trap. To reveal the abuse would ruin the girl, to let her die would martyr her. She needed to save Anna in a way that would not undo her. Lib told the girl she had died already – that this vigil was over, and that a new girl, Nan, could be born. One who had not made a vow, who could eat without betraying heaven.

She took the child away. At first to Dublin, then abroad, to a distant land where the past would not follow. William Byrne, now her companion and ally, helped craft the lie. Anna O’Donnell, the girl who lived without eating, was dead. Nan was born on a train, in a carriage bound for life.

Behind them, the O’Donnells mourned a miracle, and the newspapers printed their final breathless reports. The committee never received its official report, and Lib never returned to England. She had stopped watching, and started saving. In a small coastal village where no one asked questions, she and William built a quiet life.

Nan grew, ate, played, and slept, her cheeks rosy in the sun. The world, always eager for wonders, forgot the one it nearly destroyed.

Main Characters

• Lib Wright – A disciplined and skeptical English nurse trained under Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War. She is sent to rural Ireland to observe a young girl who reportedly does not eat. Lib is rational, analytical, and driven by empirical evidence, but her emotional restraint is tested as she grows more attached to her enigmatic patient. Her arc is a journey from detachment to profound moral engagement.

• Anna O’Donnell – An 11-year-old Irish girl who claims to have not eaten since her birthday four months prior. A devoutly religious child, Anna is both innocent and uncanny. Her unwavering belief in divine sustenance captivates pilgrims and challenges those around her, but beneath her serenity lies a dangerous secret.

• Rosaleen O’Donnell – Anna’s mother, devout and determined to see divine significance in her daughter’s condition. Rosaleen represents the grip of religious fervor and maternal pride, sometimes blinding her to reason and care.

• Dr. McBrearty – The local physician who invites Lib to observe Anna. A man caught between his professional knowledge and the community’s spiritual expectations, his reluctance to declare fraud is both troubling and telling.

• Sister Michael – A reserved and devout nun who shares the responsibility of observing Anna. In contrast to Lib, Sister Michael is quiet and introspective, her beliefs shaped by Catholic doctrine, creating a tension in their shared duty.

• William Byrne – A journalist with personal ties to the region, whose perspective helps Lib question the forces surrounding Anna. He becomes a critical ally in uncovering the truth.

Theme

• Faith vs. Science – Central to the novel is the tension between religious belief and empirical knowledge. Lib’s training and rationalism clash with the community’s acceptance of miracles, forcing a confrontation between enlightenment values and spiritual tradition.

• The Power of Belief – Donoghue explores how belief – religious, cultural, or personal – can shape reality, for better or worse. Anna’s fasting is interpreted by her community as divine, but belief, unchecked by reason, proves to be dangerous.

• Colonialism and Cultural Superiority – Through Lib’s interactions with the Irish villagers, Donoghue critiques British imperialism and cultural arrogance. Lib begins with assumptions about Irish primitiveness, but her journey reveals the complexities of a colonized people’s resilience and suffering.

• Sacrifice and Martyrdom – Anna’s self-imposed deprivation echoes the stories of saints and martyrs. Her suffering is sanctified by others, raising unsettling questions about the glorification of pain, especially in women and children.

• Mothers and Daughters – The novel also reflects on maternal relationships, particularly the boundary between protection and possession. Rosaleen’s vision of her daughter as a divine instrument blurs into neglect.

Writing Style and Tone

Emma Donoghue’s prose in The Wonder is stark yet lyrical, deeply atmospheric, and laced with historical precision. She uses third-person limited narration primarily through Lib Wright’s perspective, allowing readers to witness both the external mystery and the internal skepticism that slowly erodes under emotional strain. Donoghue’s style is characterized by restrained but evocative language, capturing the bleakness of the Irish landscape and the claustrophobia of the O’Donnell home with cinematic clarity.

Donoghue sustains a haunting, contemplative tone throughout the novel. There is an underlying sense of dread that builds gradually, driven by unanswered questions and growing emotional entanglement. Her dialogue is sharply drawn, capturing dialect without cliché, and her pacing reflects the deliberate, watchful nature of the narrative. Through tightly controlled prose, Donoghue evokes a historical world that feels immediate and intimate, blending mystery with philosophical inquiry.