The Wonder is a novel published by Emma Donoghue in 2016 that tells a story of power, corruption, and amid a framework of misogyny and Christianity working in tandem. Although set in Ireland in the 1800s, its themes remain every bit as relevant in the early decades of the 21st century. Ultimately, all the myriad themes come together to relate a story about the willingness to accept alternative facts as another version of "truth." The story thus resounds quite strongly for many readers in the years following its publication, which has since come to be characterized as the post-truth era.
A summary of the plot is actually quite simple to describe. A young English nurse named Lib Wright who has rejected religious superstition and put her faith in scientific discovery is dispatched to Ireland for two weeks to observe the facts related to what seems to be a religious miracle. Anna O'Donnell is a young girl who allegedly has been able to survive relatively well despite a prolonged period of not eating. Having been taught nursing under the tutelage of the legendary Florence Nightingale, Lib is skeptical even before arriving in Ireland. Anna, on the other hand, has come under the tutelage of the Catholic faith in the most poverty-stricken part of Ireland. And so, the book at first seems to be heading toward a showdown between science and religion.
The brilliance of the novel is that the author steadfastly refuses to stick to that well-worn path. Lib is revealed to be as gullible in her ignorance despite education as the O'Donnell family seems to her. Despite her education and career, even Lib is subject to what was then a natural British propensity to view the Irish as inferior beings. Even though she is supposed to merely observe and not intervene, Lib becomes so convinced that Anna is somehow faking her ability to survive without food through the stealthy assistance of her family that she cannot help herself from trying to figure out the secret. This allows for the most significant twist in the direction of the narrative as Lib suspects the parents are actually behind what she is convinced is fake news of this religious miracle. And it is the fact that these circumstances are viewed as a religious miracle specifically that determines the future course of events.
By the time Lib arrives, the story has already been accepted as one of those mysterious ways God arbitrarily intervenes in the lives of randomly chosen humans. Since the novel was published in September 2016, it actually prefigures the inexplicable rise of widespread belief in conspiracy theories too absurd to be true and yet unquestionably accepted as fact by enormous amounts of the population. The novel also rather eerily foresees the rise of mass rejection of inconvenient truths and facts which present problems with believing in the fake truth. As the relationship between Lib and Anna evolves, an incestuous family secret comes out along with the truth about how Anna has "miraculously" survived without eating. These revelations are not conducive to keeping the myth of the miracle intact and are rejected by believers. Even worse, Anna's own family and the members of the local church insist that Anna has lied about the horrifying family secret despite the fact that there is no logical explanation for why she would create such a painful deception. The fact that the only other witness to the abuse is dead does not help matters.
The Wonder is a novel telling a story that feels as if it had been published after rather than before the tumultuous events of 2016 which completely transformed the concepts of near-universal agreement on truth and facts. This is a story of twisted faith, a ravenous desire for one's preconceived ideas to be confirmed by events no matter how absurdly illogical, and the ease with which a multitude of people can come to quite easily believe a story that is completely irrational and impossible. It may tell a story of Ireland in the 19th century, but it is perhaps more resonant in 21st-century America than it ever was to its place and era of origin.
