Picador £7.99 (401pp) from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030
Room, By Emma Donoghue
Friday 04 February 2011
Latest in Reviews
Related stories
Imprisoned with Ma in a tiny cell by their shadowy abductor, five-year-old Jack makes sense in words of his small but dense world – like Crusoe on his island, or Adam in the garden.
For all its sensational set-up, Emma Donoghue's Man Booker-shortlisted bestseller pulses with fierce intelligence as much as powerful emotion.
In his solitude, bound to Ma by a finely-depicted mutual need, Jack becomes the wide-eyed explorer of unknown continents – above all, via the "planets" on TV. Yet half the book takes place post-escape, as the jargon of meddling professions tries to lock Jack (and Ma) into another sort of jail.
Far from a freakish case-study, Room seeks and finds a common truth, about the private worlds of language and feeling that we all inhabit.
- 1 Publishing: Rude bits in disguise
- 2 Men in Black 3D (PG)
- 3 One is nipping to Tesco: Jubilant Jubilee royals as seen by Alison Jackson
- 4 French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy calls for West to intervene in Syria
- 5 Win a limited edition Tracey Emin monoprint
- 6 Illness forces Elton to cancel concerts
- 7 Jedward reach Eurovision final in Baku
- 8 Grace Dent on Television: The Exclusives, ITV2
- 9 Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team
- 10 Jacob Zuma's lawyer weeps in court case against artist
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 3 Society: The only way is Finland
- 4 Catcalls, whistles, groping: the everyday picture of sexual harassment in London
- 5 Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?
- 6 Owen Jones: If socialists really did run the show, working people would benefit
- 7 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 8 African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
- 9 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
- 10 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.
Can you imagine a career in teaching?
Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.
Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?
Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map
The outsider: Margaret Howell
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?


Comments