The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

I’ve had mixed reactions to Emma Donoghue’s books in the past, but thoroughly enjoyed The Pull of the Stars, if enjoyed is the right word for what was actually quite a sad story set during a very difficult time.

This story followed Julia Power, a nurse in Dublin in 1918 over three days, as she struggled to keep up with her workload in the maternity ward of a hospital while flu raged through the country.

The timing of the book was interesting in that the author started writing the book during 2018, a year before COVID-19 swept through the world and a century after the pandemic flu of 1918. The story was published in 2020 when COVID-19 was new and terrible (as I write this COVID-19 is still terrible, but is now old news).

Julia’s patients were all in their last stages of pregnancy while sick with the flu. Julia had already had the flu which made her immune from catching it again, but the hospital was so short-staffed that she was left with a single, inexperienced volunteer, Bridie Sweeney, to help her manage her patients as they gave birth or succumbed to the flu.

The male doctors who occasionally stuck their heads around the doors of the maternity ward were generally useless, but a female doctor, who was on the run from the law after having been involved in the Sinn Fein uprising, was able to provide Julia with far more practical advice when dealing with her patients. The patients all had difficult childbirths, caused by a combination of them suffering from the flu, health issues as a result of their poverty, or by their bodies being worn out by many, many previous pregnancies and childbirths.

I raced through The Pull of the Stars. Julia and Bridie were inspirational characters doing the very best they could do during a terrible time.