“Thrilling and at moments palm-sweatingly harrowing.” - New York Times Book Review
“Room is that rarest of entities, an entirely original work of art. I mean it as the highest possible praise when I tell you that I can’t compare it to any other book. Suffice to say that it’s potent, darkly beautiful, and revelatory.” - Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours
“Remarkable . . . heartrending. . . . Both gripping and poignant, it’s a tribute to human resourcefulness and resilience and extremity, and a stirring portrait of a mother’s devotion.” - Toronto Star
“Claustrophobic, controversial, brilliant . . . inventive, tense, and stringently intelligent.” - Maclean's
“Her contemporary thriller Room (2010) made the author an international bestseller, but this gripping tale offers a welcome reminder that her historical fiction is equally fine.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Donoghue’s literary prowess creeps like a dark, menacing fog across the pages.” - Quill & Quire
“With Donoghue’s readable prose and lightness of touch, we find ourselves both pausing for thought and racing forward to see what will become of Anna.” - Irish Independent
“Eerie. . . . The reader is seduced by the suspense; compelled to pay as close consideration as the nurse in order to understand precisely what’s going on . . . sets a superb pace.” - Irish Times
“Donoghue draws out the narrative suspense with her customary combination of historical verve and emotional delicacy . . . Like Room, this is a thrilling domestic psychodrama that draws its power from quotidian detail as well as gothic horror - The Guardian
“It’s an intricately, beautifully wrought tale.” - Zoomer Magazine
“Beautifully moody with the taut pace of a thriller, The Wonder grapples with the potency of love, both human and divine.” - Chatelaine
“A blazing historical novel.” - Newsday
“Donoghue is a master of plot, and her prose is especially exquisite in depicting ambiguity. …In The Wonder, Gospel-like in its concern with adversity and hope, miracles are possible–perhaps through God, perhaps through woman.” - Time
Donoghue excels at the microcosm, and her obsessive interest in rooting out the truth makes for a compulsive read. A war is being waged in Anna’s tiny bedroom, and its combatants stand for sides not narrowly confined to the Victorian era: science versus faith, progress versus tradition, rich versus poor. - San Francisco Chronicle
“The Wonder unfolds a cagey, suspenseful stand-off . . . Anna receives the author’s full sympathies and is a lively, endearing foil to her incredulous nurse. - Wall Street Journal
In her deceptively straight-forward prose, Donoghue masterfully unravels a tense gothic page-turner in which nobody, including the unreliable nurse narrator, are entirely what they seem. A powerful exploration of religion and the sway it holds, The Wonder is equal parts psychological drama and unorthodox love story. A thoroughly enjoyable read from one of the country’s premier storytellers. - Toronto Star
“A tense gothic page-turner in which nobody, including the unreliable nurse narrator, are entirely what they seem. A powerful exploration of religion and the sway it holds, The Wonder is equal parts psychological drama and unorthodox love story. A thoroughly enjoyable read from one of the country’s premier storytellers. - Toronto Star
“Riveting. . . . Highly recommended.” - Literary Hub
“All spectacle and gothic horror and inevitably hard to put down.” - Jezebel
“Fodder for endless book club debates.” - Los Angeles Review of Books
“A fine work, adept and compelling in voice, plot, and moral complexity. . . . Donoghue deals out the cards with real skill.” - Boston Globe
“Fascinating. . . . Like The Turn of the Screw, the novel opens irresistibly, when a young woman with a troubled past gets an enigmatic posting in a remote place. . . . Heartbreaking and transcendent and almost religious in itself.” - New York Times
“Donoghue, a writer of great vitality and generosity-one gets the sense that she would gladly have her characters over for dinner, as long as they’d agree to eat-has been drawn repeatedly to the genre of historical fiction not so much to inhabit or reinterpret the past as to try to fit together its overlooked, missing pieces. . . . Fiction is small solace for history’s grief, but it’s one way to set the record straight.” - New Yorker
“A riveting allegory about the trickle-down effect of trauma.” - Vogue
“Donoghue’s superb thriller will keep readers hanging on to every word, pondering how far one will go to prove her faith.” - Real Simple
“What at first seems a simple matter becomes far more-stick with it, the payoff is there.” - Marie Claire
“Fresh and unusually lively historical fiction. [Donoghue’s] latest novel brings together both her preoccupation with child peril and her gift for history.” - Vulture
“A haunting novel about good vs. evil.” - Popsugar
“Like [Room], The Wonder explores a dark, insular, and rigidly controlled environment. . . . Donoghue’s clever use of an outsider as narrator lets her explain anomalies to us-what a creepie is (a log stool) and why people tie rags to a tree (to hold their pain)-as she encounters them herself. But there is more to this mystery than superstitions and local dialect. Lib must decipher the private truths of Anna and her family, who have closed ranks in grief over the loss of a son. She must puzzle out the community itself and its contradictory beliefs in religion, science, and tradition. And Lib has her own sorrowful secrets, her own need for personal redemption. Donoghue deftly pairs the two stories, and as Lib uncovers the truth about Anna, she gradually owns the truth about herself.” - O, the Oprah Magazine
“Donoghue poses powerful questions about faith and belief” - Newsday
“Outstanding.... Exploring the nature of faith and trust with heartrending intensity, Donoghue’s superb novel will leave few unaffected.” - Booklist (starred review)
“Donoghue demonstrates her versatility by dabbling in a wide range of literary styles in this latest novel. . . . The closely imagined, intricately drawn story possesses many of the same alluring qualities as her bestseller, Room. . . . Donoghue’s engrossing novel is loaded with descriptions of period customs and 19th-century Catholic devotional objects and prayers . . . [and] asks daring questions about just how far some might go to prove their faith.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Donoghue’s engrossing novel is loaded with descriptions of period customs and 19th-century Catholic devotional objects and prayers. . . [and] asks daring questions about just how far some might go to prove their faith.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Donoghue is known for her bestselling novel, Room. . . . [But] she is also well versed in historical fiction. The Wonder brings together the best of all, combining a gracefully tense, young voice with a richly detailed historical setting.” - The Millions
“Readers of historical fiction will gravitate to this tale.” - Seattle Times
“Donoghue is back with a novel as gripping and intense as the popular Room. The new book, The Wonder, is set in 1850s Ireland and will undoubtedly also be adapted to the big screen. The prose is so intensely alive, so cinematic that you truly can see the action unfolding before your eyes.” - Ottawa Citizen
“Donoghue is back with a novel as gripping and intense as the popular Room. . . . The prose is so intensely alive, so cinematic that you truly can see the action unfolding before your eyes.” - Ottawa Citizen
“If you loved Room, you will love The Wonder. And if there is any justice in Canlit, The Wonder will be on the shortlists of the major literary awards this fall. And after that, undoubtedly the Oscars.” - Ottawa Citizen
“Deliciously gothic.... Dark and vivid, with complicated characters, this is a novel that lodges itself deep” - USA Today
“Heartbreaking and transcendent” - New York Times
“A fable as lean and discomfiting as Anna’s dwindling body. . . . Donoghue keeps us riveted” - Chicago Tribune