Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue

   The author, Emma Donaghue came to Cambridge on her recent book tour.  It was the first well-known author event in our  newly-acquired library building, The Old Post Office.
  I had read her novel, "Room", which had been a great success, although it had a very sad premise.
  It is about a woman who is imprisoned by a rapist in a windowless shed, where she gives birth to Jack.  The story is told in the voice of 5-year-old Jack who has never seen the outside world.  I did not find the voice credible- the expressions and vocabulary.  But perhaps it was the darkness of the story that bothered me.  However, I was impressed with the creativity of the mother to structure the boy's life, year after year, in one room.
  The book was made into a movie and even became a stage play with songs.  So it had many covers.

  
   Emma is a very interesting speaker.  She is involved in so many projects.  While raising two children, she takes advantage of every spare moment to write or research.  She has been able to support herself with her writing since she was 23.
   Emma was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1969, and has degrees from Dublin University as well as Cambridge University in England.

   
   She spent years commuting between England, Ireland and Canada, until 1998, when she settled in London, Ontario, where she has been writing youth fiction and non-fiction as well as teaching creative writing.
  She has many projects going at any time - film, T.V., and even radio plays.  You can understand that she would be an interesting speaker



  
  Her visit to Cambridge was part of her book tour for her new novel.  We were very fortunate to have her in our city and I enjoyed her presentation very much.  And so, even though I wasn't thrilled about "Room", I decided to read "Akin".  This novel is a return to a relationship between an adult and a child.  But the premise is much brighter.  I will write about it on my next blog.



Back to the covers for "Room".  How do you like them? I love covers and I quite like the last one- creative like the novel.  That cover would have caught my eye in the bookstore and I might have read it just for that reason.