Room

Some situations are almost impossible to imagine such as a life lived within the confines of four walls and a small skylight high above your head. Even prisoners in our jails can expect some human contact and time outside in the exercise yard. Whenever someone is discovered after being locked away from outside human contact there is great discussion about how it could happen in this modern age, what we might feel were it to befall our nearest and dearest, and how, once found, does anyone cope with the slow process of being reintegrated into society. Such discussions are generally futile, however, because most of us can never truly identify with the victims of such horrendous crimes. Still, it doesn’t stop us wanting to know.

In her novel Room, Irish writer Emma Donoghue has come up with a fictional account that exceeds expectations and helps to answer many of our questions. She has delved into the world of a young woman and her five-year old son who have survived years of captivity. It is in the boy’s young voice that we begin to have some understanding of how each day is faced and lived with its attendant enforced limitations. Curiously, it is not a tale of misery and sadness but more a positive story of how people cope in impossible situations by doing the best they can.

There is a great discussion about the book on the Radio 4 programme, Open Book (listen here). The contributors talked about journalistic reports of true crime that withhold certain information so that you can never have a true picture of what actually happened. They say that non-fiction exposes the lies, tells us the facts but only fiction can bring us closer to the truth.

Robin lent me the book and it was at least three weeks before I opened the first page; I didn’t really want to read it but eventually knuckled down. After losing my initial reluctance I was swept away by the characters in this excellent and unforgettable story.