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)

Unexpectedly Amazing!

This was an amazing read! At first I didn't like that it was mostly told from Jacks perspective but now I wouldn't have wanted it any other way! Great story, great ending, throughly entertaining!! Loved that there was no profanity too :)

Wow.

I'm glad I did this as an audio book; the narration is superb and I believe adds to the experience that is "Room". The story is disgusting, thrilling, heart-wrenching and beautiful all at the same time. You can see the story unfold through everyone's eyes and feel the emotions from every point of view. Truly an amazing book, unlike anything else I've ever read.

Worth a listen...again and again!

I read the reviews about this audiobook before I purchased it. I agree with the reviewer who said that listening to the child's voice was a bit annoying -- but only at first because it was soon part of the experience. What an amazing book -- the characters, the story, the twists. One minute I was cheering and the next I was crying. Wow! I can't say enough. There were part of this story where I could hear my niece speaking to me when she was five. There were parts where I thought about "old school" Hitchcock where the author leads the reader to use his/her imagination. This was one book I will be talking about for a long time.

A good book to listen to

I got this book on the strength of other reviews and am glad I did. Most of the reviewers were women so I wasn't sure if I would be to my taste. It's much different from my usual books, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not sure I would have loved it if I read it, but the narrators really sold the characters and involved me. Very original tale.

Disturbing, and the child's voice gets annoying

The child's perspective, which is carried all the way through the book, gets quite annoying - especially in the second half of the book.
I don't think I would have actually read this book, so I guess it's an OK listen, but towards the end I really was looking forward to it ending.

Great book, beautifully read.

This is a beautiful book. I am an immigrant and came to this country with my baby son and it was only six years later that his father could join us, so I know what's it's like to be a single mother and one struggling to survive in a foreign country to boot.

Maybe that's why I enjoyed this book so, because I know what it's like to do everything you can to make your surroundings a happy place for your child regardless of actual circumstances.

How beautifully Emma Donoghue has written about it and how very credible her characters are and how well developed! And I loved the reading. The readers are all great, I particularly liked Jack. The person who reads Jack must have much experience listening to children's peculiar cadences and intonations.

Great Book

Loved the narrator on this story. Made it so much more enjoyable! A must read.

Wow.

I couldn't stop listening, but I hardly know what to say about this title. Listen!

Scrave - best word yet.

A difficult listen, but, difficult to put down. If only we could all be so scrave.

Perfect, Riveting, Thought Provoking

For those who felt that the story being told from a 5 year olds perspective alone was boring, I think I'll say they should go watch a shoot em up movie.

By listening to the boy and meditating on it, we learn SO much. He can't know what his ma is thinking, but WE can by what he sees and what his musings are.

It was fascinating to "hear" his thoughts. Although precocious, he has no knowledge of the dangers of life outside Room. How could he? How the author was able to get into a 5 year old mind was amazing.

As for no "articles" before the objects in Room., how wise that Ma gave him friends. We didn't need to have every persons attitudes and thoughts given to us. They were all there for us to see through Jack.

As for the reader, How perfect. Some listeners actually thought this was a child.

I can't say enough about this book. I read by by eyes and ears all the time and this is one of my top books ever.