ROOM
To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It’s where he was born, it’s where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it’s the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack’s curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.
To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It’s where he was born, it’s where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it’s the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack’s curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.
Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating–a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.
- Little, Brown and Company
- Paperback
- May 2011
- 384 Pages
- 9780316098328
Buy the Book
$16.99
About Emma Donoghue
Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is a writer of contemporary and historical fiction whose novels include the bestselling Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, Landing, Life Mask, Hood, and Stirfry. Her story collections are The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, Kissing the Witch, and Touchy Subjects. She also writes literary history, and plays for stage and radio. She lives in London, Ontario, with her partner and their two small children.
Praise
“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 and Her Fearful Symmetry
“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, author of The Pilot’s Wife and A Change in Altitude
“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. I read the book over two days, desperate to know how their story would end . . . Room deserves to reach the widest possible audience.”—John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
“Room is that rarest of entities, an entirely original work of art. I mean it as the highest possible praise when I tell you that I can’t compare it to any other book. Suffice to say that it’s potent, darkly beautiful, and revelatory.”—Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours and By Nightfall
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think the entire novel is told in Jack’s voice? Do you think this narrative approach is effective?
2. Discuss the ways in which Jack’s development has been stunted by growing up in Room. Has he on any level benefited from the seclusion?
3. If you were Ma, what would you miss most about the outside world?
4. What would you do differently if you were Jack’s parent? Would you tell Jack about the outside world from the start?
5. If Ma had never given birth to Jack, how might her situation in Room have been different?
6. What would you ask for, for Sunday treat, if you were Jack? If you were Ma?
7. Describe the dynamic between Old Nick and Ma. Why do you think the author chose not to tell us Old Nick’s story?
8. What does joining the outside world do to Jack? To Ma?
9. Discuss the role that the news media play in the novel.
10. In a comparable situation, how would you teach a child the difference between the real world and what they watch on television?
11. Why do people tend to be so fascinated by stories of long-term confinement?
12. Discuss Grandma’s response to Jack and to Ma in the wake of their escape. What are the emotional challenges Grandma faces in the circumstances?
13. Which scenes or developments in the novel affected you most?