The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

 genre: historical fiction

Lib is a nurse, trained by the great Florence Nightingale herself, and while her life isn't full of love and family, it has a purpose.  When she is offered an opportunity to go to Ireland and determine the truthfulness of one town's claim that a girl in their midst can live without food, she takes it.  Anna, a so-called fasting girl, is so pious and in tune with her Lord, that she believes she has no need of sustenance.  And as Lib spends hours alone with Anna, making sure she truly isn't eating, this lovely eleven year old child as well as the super religious and superstitious town she lives in gets under Lib's skin.  The situation is wrought with ethical issues, to be sure, but how can Lib herself determine if Anna is a blessed girl bound for sainthood or a hoodwinking wannabe?

This is a beautifully written novel that delves into religious fervor, the childhood psyche and the complicated relationships that can exist in families and tight knit communities.  While it wasn't a fast moving story, I became attached to the characters and cared about what happened.  I appreciated the moral questions I had to ask myself as I saw the world through Lib's point of view and wondered how I would handle things in her position.  I also liked how this was a story about an Englishwoman with scientific training trying to do her job in a tiny Irish village in the mid 19th century where the blight is still fresh in the memory and the fairies are believed to be real.  I found the ending of the book intriguing and while I had to suspend my disbelief a couple times throughout, I was happy to.