Room: the unputdownable bestseller that inspired the Oscar-winning film

Emma Donoghue

Jun 2015 · Picador Classic Book 29 · Pan Macmillan

About this ebook

Told from the perspective of five-year-old Jack, Emma Donoghue’s Room, is a devastating portrait of a boundless maternal love.

A major film starring Brie Larson.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

Jack lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures 11 feet by 11 feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real – only him, Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits that there’s a world outside . . .

Told in Jack’s voice, Room is the story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible .

Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.

Ratings and reviews

Irritating, unbelievable and boring. The way it was narrated in the voice of a 5 year old made me cringe at times. I find it hard to believe that a child who is supposedly such a good speller, and knows what a "shroud" and"paparazzi" are, doesn't even know the words for man and woman. Instead, they are referred to throughout the book as a "he person" and a "she person"! I really don't understand why this book been rated so highly. It's embarrassing!

I wonder how it would have been if the "outside" wasn't New York city . it's a beautifully written book , but not everywhere we have special clinics who deal with trauma victims with so much sophisticated care ( for free).independent living , wow . What if they had found a world outside that is brutal , selfish and almost as threateningly offensive as the secluded confinement of room

Although it started great it was filled with unnecessary information that was a drag to read and there was no build to the end. Plot was missing important resolving. I think overall the narration is what makes this book worth reading

About the author

Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an Irish emigrant twice over: she spent eight years in Cambridge doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature before moving to London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their two children. She also migrates between genres, writing literary history, biography, stage and radio plays as well as fairy tales and short stories. She is best known for her novels, which range from the historical (Frog Music, Slammerkin, Life Mask, Landing, The Sealed Letter and The Wonder) to the contemporary (Stir-Fry, Hood, Landing). Her international bestseller Room was a New York Times Best Book of the Year and was a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes.