Donoghue's "Room" opens doors for her

Vincent Murphy talks to Irish born author Emma Donoghue about her new novel Room and how her Booker Prize nomination has changed her life.

Once she found out that her book Room had made the Booker Prize shortlist, Emma Donoghue went straight onto YouTube to check out what people had worn to the ceremony in recent years. “The funny thing is for a prize that’s meant to be about the intellect, it turns the shortlisted authors into bimbos,” she laughs. “Cos we have to worry about what to wear, give endless interviews and do photo-shoots. It’s like being turned from a novelist into a model for a few weeks”.

The Dublin-born author is clearly enjoying the whirlwind surrounding her since her novel, Room, was nominated for one of literature’s most prestigious prizes. She’s currently touring the US to promote the book, which includes a reading and Q&A session in the Irish Arts Center in New York. “With this particular book, I find I’m doing much shorter readings because the Q&As are going on so long,” she said, “People have so many questions they want to ask me, and I really like talking about the book.” 

The book, which tells the story of a mother and son held captive for years in a tiny garden shed, was described as “remarkable, thrilling and truly memorable” by the New York Times. It’s narrated in the voice of five-year-old Jack – for whom Room is his entire world, and whose curiosity is building in tandem with his mother’s desperation.

Sounds like dark stuff - but it’s much easier to read than you would expect.

“Yes, a lot of people are afraid that it’s going to be just incredibly sick-making and tense all the way through, so a lot are really relieved by that,” she says. “It always takes a bit of work for readers to get to grips with a narrator that speaks non-standard English. But compared to something like A Clockwork Orange, his English is not that difficult at all.”

The novel was inspired by the real life case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who held his family captive for 24 years and subjected them to horrific physical and sexual abuse.  “I was very honest about the fact that it had been the Fritzl case that put the idea in my head,” says Donoghue, “But you know that was just the ‘spark’ of inspiration. I hate it when they then make the leap and say that I’ve written a novel about the Fritzl case.

“I went out of my way to take just the kernel of the idea – the idea of a child who didn’t realise that the locked room he was in was not the whole word. I not only then set it in America and made the circumstances very different – you know the captor is not her father or anything - but I deliberately made the circumstances much better and more liveable than any of the real life kidnapping cases that I read about. Because I didn’t want it to be about all those extra horrors, you know. I wanted it to be about being locked up, and almost a test case of ‘could mother love be enough?' So I give them fairly ideal circumstances given that they are still kidnapped.”

Donoghue has two children herself, aged 6 and 3, and she thinks that may be why the idea came to her so fast. “I never usually looked at headlines for inspiration at all,” she said, “but in this case I was just seized by the idea of a child writing a novel about this kind of thing. I think because, partly, that situation is every parent’s nightmare and the idea that your child could be denied all the things that usually come so naturally for children, like socialising and playgrounds, and swimming pools. The idea that you could only give your child a very very limited array of pleasures, and the question of whether you could do anything to make up for that. Could you love them well enough to make up for the lack of a whole world?”

"I always knew that the story was not going to be a depressing one and that Ma and Jack would manage to create quite a lot of happiness within their prison."

Despite the heavy subject matter, Donoghue insists writing it was not traumatic at all. “You know, parents have these worries anyway,” she said, “And writing is extremely therapeutic in that way ‘cos you are just taking fears and anxieties that you actually have anyway and playing them out. Doing the research was horrible because I had to read about so many different ways that we damage children. But by comparison, actually writing Room itself was not – I always knew that the story was not going to be a depressing one and that Ma and Jack would manage to create quite a lot of happiness within their prison. So no, it didn’t get me down.  I just found it very, very absorbing as a project.”

It’s a book has now catapulted her into a new level as an author. She was named on the Booker Prize long list even before it was published on the strength of advance copies that had been sent to reviewers and bloggers by her publishers. The reviews were almost universally positive. “They stunned me,” she said, “I was waiting for someone to get the hatchet out”

Following her nomination, she was inundated with interview requests from India, China and around the world.

“Suddenly you get an international name and that’s a really big jump. It happened like an explosion and I was completely unprepared. I hadn’t even thought of whether the book might be in with a chance for any prizes, because it wasn’t even out yet.  “It meant people who had heard of you, but perhaps thought of you as of minority interest, suddenly take you more seriously. And many, many people who’ve never heard of you before, pick up your book. The Booker has great power that way.”

Donoghue says he’s genuinely thrilled to bits with her nomination and is taking it all in her stride. “I’m in a good position because I really don’t think I’m going to win so I feel quite relaxed about it. I feel like I’m going to a great party – I don’t feel on tender hooks.” Donoghue might not feel like she has a chance, but that’s not what the bookmakers say. “Ah you wouldn’t want to listen to the bookies,” she insists, “I don’t think judging panels and bookies approach their business in the same way. And I don’t think the bookies’ favourites win very often. I can’t quite see it. But I feel I have won massively in terms of how many people have heard about this book with the Booker prize happening just as it is being published – the timing has been just ideal.”

“If I had to pump for a label, I would say I’m Irish. Because I think those first 20 years do shape you – my mind is more the mind of an Irish woman. But in terms of my loyalties, I belong to both countries.”

Donoghue was born in Dublin – her father is Denis Donoghue, the literary critic who is now a professor at New York University – and moved to London when she was 20. Eight years later she moved to Ontario, Canada  where she still lives with her partner and children. The Canadians are just as excited about her nomination as the Irish, with her local newspaper describing her as “Ontarian scribe Emma Donoghue...”

“Yeah, they are all claiming me as their own,” she laughs, “A friend of mine says I’ve been double-dipping from the publicity pond! It’s true I’ve been getting more than my share of attention because of my loyalty to two different countries. If I had to pump for a label, I would say I’m Irish. Because I think those first 20 years do shape you – my mind is more the mind of an Irish woman. But in terms of my loyalties, I belong to both countries.”

The novel’s success has been stunning, and already there are rumours of it being turned into a movie. “Oh there’s always talk of a film being made,” she says, “But I haven’t gone into negotiations yet. I’ve written a script already. But I’m not going try to sell rights on it until the publication has run its course.”

 “There’s no bullshit about it. There’s no mystique. I write while the kids are at school and in daycare. I don’t wait to be in that ‘perfect’ mood – I just go at it”

She’s already working on her next novel – a murder story set in San Francisco in 1870. She considers writing her job and she always has the next few stories sketched out in her mind. “There’s no bullshit about it. There’s no mystique. I write while the kids are at school and in daycare. I don’t wait to be in that ‘perfect’ mood – I just go at it”

She believes that it’s the concept of Room that has captured the public’s attention, not that she is writing any differently or better than she ever has in the book. “I think I was very lucky – I hit on a really great idea and I seem to have written it well enough. I wouldn’t feel at all that my other books will have this kind of success.”

The winner of the Booker Prize will be announced on October 12 in London. The ceremony will be live on television, and yes, the Youtube research has payed off - she has picked out a “great” dress already. “More importantly, I’ve found a Nanny!” she says, “Never mind a dress - the key thing is to have a nanny for the night.”