Set in the Irish Midlands in the 1850s, The Wonder-inspired by numerous European and North American cases of 'fasting girls' between the 16th century and the 20th-is a psychological thriller about a child's murder threatening to happen in slow motion before our eyes. Pitting all the seductions of fundamentalism against sense and love, it is a searing examination of what nourishes us, body&soul. Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy.