Now That’s Quite the Coincidence

The Pull of the Stars
Written by Emma Donoghue
Published July 21, 2020

Reading about a pandemic. During a pandemic.

The parallels between our present day lives and the setting of this book, which takes place during the flu pandemic of 1918, are truly uncanny. What’s even more shocking is that the author, Emma Donoghue, had no idea our current health crisis was coming when she wrote the novel. She was inspired by the flu’s centennial anniversary in 1918, and by the time she turned in the last draft of the book, it was March of 2020 and our current plight was upon us.

The novel centers around a nurse named Julia Power who works in a Maternity & Fever ward in a Dublin hospital located in a poor neighborhood. The hospital environment is desperate with medical workers and supplies in short supply, and there is constant urgency as Nurse Power fervently tries to save mothers and babies from the deadly flu.

“As far as I could tell, the whole world was a machine grinding to a halt. Across the globe, in hundreds of languages, signs were going up urging people to cover their coughs. We had it no worse here than anywhere else; self-pity was as useless as panic.”

In addition to a fascinatingly familiar storyline that will keep you glued to the page, there is also a slow burning love story that gradually builds. I don’t want to give too much away in that department, but I will say that it is a great modern twist on traditional workplace romances.