Linda Frech: I loved this story but was disappointed with the ending. There is so much to tell of Nurse Powers story. Bring on book 2.
United States on Jun 02, 2023
SwetaSweta: I loved the book! I was skeptical about it at first, but it turned out to be a good read.
India on May 20, 2023
Dee: A lot can happen in 3 days - the last being the most emotional. Very descriptive read. There are no speech marks.
United Kingdom on Mar 03, 2023
Cheryl V. Schlesinger: A story of a nurse in Dublin, Ireland, trained as a midwife, during WWI in the height of the Spanish flu epidemic. The nurse Julia, finds herself in charge of a small ward of pregnant women who have been infected with the flu. In comes Bridie, a boarder sent from the convent, to assist Laura as staffing shortages were beyond critical. The story, told over a three day span, is one of the most intense stories I have read in a long time. The patients, the complications, the medical practices and protocols, the friendship between Julia and Bridie, the political unrest in Ireland over home rule, and the hierarchy as well as the judgmental cruelness of the nuns of that time towards orphans, illegitimate births, and lower class women make this novel one of the most explicit, intense books of a terrifying and terrible time. Mesmerizing. Could not put it down. But not for the faint of heart
United States on Jan 24, 2023
S Payne: I have read a few Emma Donoghue books previously and generally I have really enjoyed them. There were a couple that fell a bit short for me (am looking at you ‘Frog Music’ and ‘The Sealed Letter’) but I like Donoghue’s style, content and the way she writes, so I was pretty excited to start ‘The Pull of the Stars’.
This book is set in the midst of the 1918 flu epidemic in Dublin. As people are killing each other on the battlefields of the First World War, we follow Nurse Julie Power over 3 days as she works heroically to save the lives of the mothers and babies in a small isolation room for pregnant women battling the flu. With the help of an inexperienced but enthusiastic volunteer, Bridie, and Dr Katherine Lynn, a real-life character and Irish nationalist whose involvement with Sinn Fein made her a target for the police, we learn about the aversion to contraception, the social pressure to churn out babies (upwards of ten was the norm), sexual abuses in religious institutions, Magdalene laundries, a maternal mortality rate of 15%, and the pandemic. We see mothers trying and failing to give birth to their twelfth child because their bodies can't take any more,...
United Kingdom on Jun 08, 2021
Maybelle: An absorbing book which is at times painful reading, The Pull of the Stars is set in the midst of the 1918 flu epidemic in Dublin. Julie Power, a nurse in a small isolation room for pregnant women with flu, works heroically to save the lives of the mothers and babies, with the help of an inexperienced but enthusiastic volunteer, Bridie, and Dr Katherine Lynn, a real-life character, an Irish nationalist whose involvement with Sinn Fein made her a target for the police.
The links to the present COVID-19 pandemic are clear, though unintentional: Emma Donoghue wrote the novel in 2018, the centenary of the flu epidemic. The book focuses on the minute detail of a small compass of time (three days) and is mostly set in the overcrowded, understaffed hospital, and in the isolation room in which there is a lack of space between the beds: it feels enclosed, crammed in - lockdown reading? Detailed descriptive writing absorbs the reader; at times the gruesome details of obstetric complications may be too intense for some, but the need to find out if the characters will survive is powerful.
It has become a fashion for authors to forgo the use of speech marks and line spacing for dialogue....
United Kingdom on Jan 24, 2021
Leslie LindsayLeslie Lindsay: Pregnant women quarantined in a Dublin hospital during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918.
I’m always alert to the work of the the lovely and talented Emma Donoghue, especially since I fell in love with her disturbingly good, ROOM.
THE PULL OF THE STARS (New York: Little Brown; July 2020), seemed to be vying for my attention, whispering, “Read me, read me,” when I came across this historical fiction set in 1918 Dublin. For three days, we are midwives in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. There’s work, and risk and a claustrophobic sense of the world browning at the edges; and yes, it has so many parallels with today’s pandemic.
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new flu are quarantined. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders—Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling...
United States on Sep 09, 2020
Dave Schwinghammer: THE PULL OF THE STARS is especially appropriate considering what we're going through now with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The novel is set in 1918 Ireland during WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic. Julia Power is a nurse working in a hospital ward for pregnant women who have the flu. At the outset she is an underling to a sister who rules with an iron fist. She is not allowed to drive her bike to the hospital and must take the tram part of the way.
In short order the sister is moved to the maternity ward and Julia is on her own. She can't do it herself and begs for another pair of hands, which turns out to be Bridie Sweeney, who claims she's already had the flu, but she has no nursing experience and has really never been in a hospital. She is an orphan who is still living with the nuns. Another important cog is Dr. Lynn, a radical obstetrician who was a member of the Irish uprising. She's wanted.
Julia starts losing patients almost immediately. A woman has died before she got to work. One of her patients has been pregnant twelve times seven of which lived. Julia is critical of women being enslaved to pregnancy in 1918 Ireland. Another woman is rich or at least well off. She...
United States on Aug 20, 2020
| Emma Donoghue's "Pull of the Stars" - A Captivating Tale of Love, Hope and Perseverance | Rhys Bowen's Novel "The Victory Garden": A Story of Triumph and Resilience | "The Victory Garden: A Novel of Love, Loss, and Hope" by Rhys Bowen | |
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| B2B Rating |
93
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98
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97
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| Sale off | $3 OFF | $7 OFF | |
| Total Reviews | 464 reviews | 1 reviews | 1 reviews |
| Release date | July 6, 2021 | February 12, 2019 | February 12, 2019 |
| Customer Reviews | 4.3/5 stars of 12,343 ratings | 4.4/5 stars of 47,830 ratings | 4.4/5 stars of 47,830 ratings |
| Publication date | July 6, 2021 | February 12, 2019 | February 12, 2019 |
| 20th Century Historical Fiction | 20th Century Historical Fiction | 20th Century Historical Fiction | 20th Century Historical Fiction |
| Best Sellers Rank | #15 in LGBTQ+ Historical Fiction #91 in Medical Fiction #428 in 20th Century Historical Fiction | #3,749 in 20th Century Historical Fiction#11,008 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction#38,435 in Literary Fiction | #346 in 20th Century Historical Fiction#908 in Family Life Fiction #2,668 in Literary Fiction |
| Language | English | English | English |
| Product Dimensions | 5.5 x 1 x 8 inches; 9.6 Ounces | 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches; 1.05 Pounds | 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches; 12.8 Ounces |
| ISBN-10 | 031649903X | 1542040124 | 1542040116 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0316499033 | 978-1542040129 | 978-1542040112 |
| LGBTQ+ Historical Fiction (Books) | LGBTQ+ Historical Fiction | ||
| Medical Fiction (Books) | Medical Fiction | ||
| Country of Origin | USA | USA | USA |
| Publisher | Back Bay Books; Reprint edition | Lake Union Publishing; First Edition edition | Lake Union Publishing; First Edition Thus edition |
United Kingdom on Aug 17, 2023