Room

A Novel

By: Emma Donoghue

Narrated by: Michal Friedman, Ellen Archer, Robert Petkoff, Suzanne Toren

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. 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 is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2010 Emma Donoghue (P)2010 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The award-winning best seller that became one of the most talked about and memorable novels of the decade, Room is "utterly gripping...a heart-stopping novel" (San Francisco Chronicle).

"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)

"This is a truly memorable novel, one that can be read through myriad lenses - psychological, sociological, political. It presents an utterly unique way to talk about love, all the while giving us a fresh, expansive eye on the world in which we live." ( The New York Times Book Review)

loved!!!! loved!!! loved!!

this book was so well written, I was hooked by the first few words. I saw the movie first but decided I had to read the book. The book was definitely better than the movie who's is usually how it go's but I can say that after reading the book I understood the movie better. I really enjoyed this book and will be reading it again

from the eyes of a child

A story written from the perspective of a child. I liked how how each layer of the story unraveled. would like to know how Jack is. 10 years from now.

get past the voice

once you get past the main narrators voice, it is a really good story. it is different enough from the movie that you still can enjoy it.

Thriller

Very emotional story. I cried multiple times as it was so heart wrenching. Tough read.

pretty wild story

it was a bit rough listening to a child talk so much for me, but the story was haunting but it was really a good story.

Great, I watched the movie too and love it

Loved it! Michal did an excellent job getting Jack's voice down to a tee. very similar to the little boy's voice who played in the movie.

Gifted child narrator reads a brilliant book

I was completely swept up in this book, which unfolds with deliberate restraint and then takes off like a snowball rolling down a hill. The character of the child narrator is beautifully crafted, and yet I could imagine being turned off by the childish language if I were reading it myself. Instead, the narrator Michal Friedman creates a character with just his (her?) voice. Chilling story, amazing read. Couldn't stop listening!

Brilliant

I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard that the majority of this book is told by a 5-year-old character. I often find that authors have a hard time speaking as a child - this was so incredibly believable and brilliantly written and read. What an awesome book. When I finished the book, I felt like I was leaving a few friends - I related to them and I felt like I knew them. I hated that this book ended. One of the best books, in addition to The Help, that I have read in a long time.

Great capture of 5 year old's thinking

this was an interesting story, that captured the relationship between single mother and child who are confounded in isolation for years.
I held my attention and you could imagine the room they shared w/no difficulty.

Loved the story

This was a great book. It was a moving story and I was sorry to see it end. I wanted to know how their lives evolved. I wondered how Jack adjusted to school and how his mom continued in her adjustment to life as a free woman. The narration was great and captured the emotions of the characters.