Room - Softcover

Donoghue, Emma

4.08

804,835 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330519921 ISBN 13: 9780330519922

Publisher: Picador, 2010

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Jack is five and, like any little boy, excited at the prospect of presents and cake. He's looking forward to telling his friends it's his birthday, too. But although Jack is a normal child in many ways -- loving, funny, bright, full of energy and questions -- his upbringing is far from ordinary: Jack's entire life has been spent in a single room that measures just 11 feet by 11 feet; as far as he's concerned, Room is the entire world. He shares this world with his mother, with Plant, and tiny Mouse (though Ma isn't a fan and throws a book at Mouse when she sees him). There's TV too, of course -- and the cartoon characters he thinks of as his friends -- but Jack knows that nothing else he sees on the screen is real. Old Nick, on the other hand, is all too real, but only visits at night -- like a bat -- when Jack is meant to be asleep and hidden safely in Wardrobe. And only Old Nick has the code to Door, which is otherwise locked . . . Told in Jack's voice, Room is the story of a mother's love for her son, and of a young boy's innocence. Unsentimental yet affecting, devastating yet uplifting, it promises to be the most talked about novel of 2010.

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Review:

Room is one of the most profoundly affecting books I've read in a long time. Jack moved me greatly. His voice, his story, his innocence, his love for Ma combine to create something very unusual and, I think, something very important . . . Room deserves to reach the widest possible audience (John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)

Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence into horror and horror into tenderness. Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days (Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife)

I've never read a more heart-burstingly, gut wrenchingly compassionate novel . . . As for sweet, bright, funny Jack, I wanted to scoop him up out of the novel and never let him go (Daily Mail)

This is a truly remarkable novel. It presents an utterly unique way to talk about love, all the while giving us a fresh, expansive eye on the world in which we live (New York Times Book Review)

Startlingly original and moving . . . Endearing and as utterly compelling as The Lovely Bones (Scotsman)

This book will break your heart . . . It is the most vivid, radiant and beautiful expression of maternal love I have ever read (Irish Times)

I loved Room. Such incredible imagination, and dazzling use of language. And with all this, an entirely credible, endearing little boy. It's unlike anything I've ever read before (Anita Shreve)

Book Description:

The story of a mother, her son, a locked room and the outside world. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Filmed as a major motion picture, directed by Lenny Abrahamson.

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