Dublin, 1918: three days in a Maternity ward at the height of the great flu. A small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, by the bestselling author of the wonder and room. ‘An immersive, unforgettable fever-dream of a novel’ – The times the Sunday Times bestseller from the acclaimed author of the wonder and room the old world dying on its feet, a new one struggling to be born... Dublin, 1918. In a country doubly ravaged by war and disease, nurse Julia power works at an understaffed hospital in the city centre, where expectant mothers who have come down with an unfamiliar 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 the course of three days, these women change each other 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. In the pull of the stars, Emma Donoghue tells an unforgettable and deeply moving story of love and loss. Guardian’s ‘brilliant books to transport you This summer’ cosmopolitan’s ‘best books to read this summer’ stylist’s ‘best summer reads’.