The Pull of the Stars
Fiction
HarperCollins
July 21, 2020
Audiobook Advanced Listener Copy
304
Publisher via LibroFM
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 together. 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 pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.
My review:
A book with a medical related storyline is a go to for me, every time! This one is yet another book about the influenza of 1918. It seems lots of authors started writing about this when the 100 year anniversary brought it to the forefront a couple years ago. Little did they all know that when their books would be completed, we would have our own pandemic that closely mirrors many of the historical facts from then. This one takes a slightly different tack in that it takes place in a hospital in Ireland. Specifically a section of the hospital where infected maternity patients are brought to be cared for, and deliver their babies. The whole book takes place over the course of three days, and while two of the characters are fictional, the doctor in charge of the hospital is based on a real person from history. Other than the fascinating tales of labor, delivery, and treating those disease stricken mothers, this book also tackles some other relevant issues of that time. Bridie comes to help nurse Julia in the ward, and we learn her story of growing up in an orphanage under horrible conditions. There is also lots of references to the class structure in Ireland, as well as the issue of birth control and sexual abuse. I thought the romance thrown in was of no value, and thrown in is probably a good term, because it doesn't turn into much of an issue (I'm not sure what the purpose was?). I wish we could have had just a bit more info at the end about what transpired with Julia's life after leaving the hospital that third day.
I listened to this one on audio, which I enjoyed very much. The narrator had an Irish accent, which I always appreciate when I'm being transported to another country where the story takes place.
Not exactly a happy go lucky book, this one deals with lots of issues on top of a pandemic, but if you like hospital setting books, I think this will be just what the doctor ordered.
