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1859: A girl in an Irish village is said to have survived without food for months….
The Wonder
What you need to know before your trail
Lib Wright,an English nurse, is summoned to a tiny village to observe what some are claiming to be either a medical anomaly or a miracle – a girl there is said to have survived without food for months. This is causing such interest that people are flocking to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell. Tourists want to see this girl, where she lives and how she has lasted for this long without food. A journalist is sent to cover the developing story. But this is no ordinary journalist – Lib Wright is a veteran of Florence Nightingale’s Crimean campaign.
Lib and a nun work shifts to observe the girl – to try to discover how she is surviving and how she is managing to live day to day. And ultimately to discover why this is happening and what might be the result.
Travel Guide
Athlone
“The macadamised road out of Athlone seemed wan, which Lib attributed to the infamous diet of potatoes and little else.”
“Flat fields striped with dark foliage. Sheets of reddish-brown peat; wasn’t bogland known to harbour disease? The occasional grey remains of a cottage, almost greened over. Nothing that struck Lib is picturesque. Clearly the Irish Midlands were a depression where wet pooled, the little circle in a saucer.”
Fasting Girls
The author has mentioned in interviews that she first came across the Fasting Girl phenomenon back in the mid-1990s. She was instantly intrigued by these cases, which seemed to echo medieval saints starving as an act of penance. In other ways however, she realised that girls who refuse to eat in order to become slim and often who become anorexics are the other side of that coin. In many Western countries, girls and women often use food as a way of controlling weight, emotions and much else. People become famous because of it and many girls are judged on their weight.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Wonder
Author/Guide: Emma Donoghue Destination: Althone Departure Time: 1850s
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