The time period is important, because Anna O’Donnell, the girl at the heart of the story, was born into hunger, but now food is relatively plentiful again. This makes it almost sacrilegious for her to shun it. The Wonder takes place just seven years after the end of the Great Famine, which occurred between 18. But while both novels feature complicated females starving themselves, they are doing so for very different reasons… Starving to get into heaven? Awad’s is a thoroughly contemporary novel set in urban Canada Donoghue’s is an historical novel set in rural Ireland. In Mona Awad’s 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl we meet an unhappy woman obsessed with staying thin in Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder we meet a pious and joyful 11 year old girl who appears to be surviving on nothing but air. It seems rather uncanny that the first two books I’ve read from the 2016 Giller Prize shortlist both happen to revolve around food and fasting, albeit set centuries and continents apart. Fiction – hardcover Picador 292 pages 2016.
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