Most of us read a lot more during the Covid-19 lockdowns than we did before. Had it not been for the pile of books I had bought but hadn’t got around to reading before the pandemic, I would have probably gone bat-shit crazy within a week of staying at home all day long. Getting lost in fictitious worlds was what kept many of us sane during such maddening times.

Though I read many good books during the lockdown, even tackling some that had been on my to-be-read list for years, there’s one I recently read that I wish I had gotten around to sooner: Emma Donoghue’s ‘The Pull of the Stars’.

This book, I believe, would have helped me make sense of the world I was suddenly thrust into and also given me some much-needed comfort. Although grim and heartbreaking, Donoghue’s 11th novel mimics present-day Covid crisis and makes you feel a little less alone and doomed.

The Pull of the Stars is a historical fiction based on the 1918 influenza-pandemic. Set in Dublin, at the beginning of the contagion, the story unfolds over three days in a Dublin hospital. It’s narrated by a nurse, Julia Powers, who is in charge of a maternity fever ward where expectant mothers who seem to have come down with an unfamiliar flu are quarantined together. Though the ward doesn’t get many patients, the women who do end up there are in the latter stages of their pregnancies. With hospital resources stretched thin and a deadly flu doing the rounds, Julia has to constantly deal with life-and-death situations.

There’s also Dr Kathleen Lynn and a young volunteer, Bridie Sweeney, who are fighting to save lives alongside Julia. The friendship that develops between these three women is also something Donoghue has chosen to focus on besides just how the world dealt with a crisis in those times. I especially loved that side of the story as it was a reminder of the fact that love blooms in the unlikeliest of places and that we are all trying to do the best we can.

I have read Donoghue’s internationally bestselling novel ‘Room’, inspired by the Josef Fritzl case where a girl was held captive and raped by her father for 24 years. It would be wrong to say I enjoyed it because the subject matter was so grotesque but Donoghue’s writing style is crisp and you completely fall for the story, hook, line, and sinker. In The Pull of the Stars too, Donoghue’s prose is visceral and you get the sense of urgency in the cramped, tiny ward where healthcare workers are fighting against all odds.

The story also shines light on how those who have been neglected by the society are often the ones who suffer the most, and that things are no different when there’s a health crisis.

There’s a section in the book where Dr Lynn criticizes the government for Dublin’s poverty and high infant mortality. Julia, however, says she doesn’t have time for politics to which Dr Lynn replies, “Oh, but everything’s politics, don’t you know?”

It is moments like these, and there are plenty of them, that make the book so relevant in today’s times.

I have recommended this book to friends only to be told they don’t want to read something that reminds them of a situation they are yet to get over. But The Pull of the Stars makes you realize what we are going through isn’t unique and thus makes it a little easier, in your head, to endure the rough times we are living through.

Fiction

The Pull of the Stars

Emma Donoghue

Published: 2020

Publisher: Picador

Language: English

Pages: 294, Paperback