Room (Oberon Modern Plays) (Paperback)

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Room (Oberon Modern Plays) By Emma Donoghue Cover Image

Room (Oberon Modern Plays) (Paperback)

$15.95


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Summer '11 Reading Group List


“Room is like no other book I have ever read. This emotionally powerful story of young Jack and his mother who are held in captivity for seven years is both a heart-wrenching testament to the power of the love between a mother and child and a riveting story of overcoming horrible circumstances. Emma Donohue has written one of those rare books that you will remember reading your entire life, as you will be altered by the experience.”
— Lanora Hurley, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI

September 2010 Indie Next List


“Room is like no other book I have ever read. This emotionally powerful story of young Jack and his mother, held in captivity for seven years, is both a heart wrenching testament to the power of the love between a mother and child and a riveting story of overcoming horrible circumstances. Emma Donohue has written one of those rare books that you will remember reading your entire life, as you will be altered by the experience.”
— Lanora Hurley, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI

Staff Reviews


    Another great book that doesn't need any more aclaim, but perhaps a reminder that it exists.  The plot demands attention from the start.  A mom and her 5 year old son Jack are kept in room.  Jack was born in captivity and Room is his story.  Journey into his innocent mind and experience his 11' x 11' world.  He is content in Room because he's never experienced the outside world.  Mom however is ready to break free...  Is there life for Mom and Jack beyond Room?  I won't spoil anything but you can be assured that this story will leave you feeling wonderful.  (and kinda makes cabin fever feel not so bad!)

— Rachel

Kidnapped as a teenage girl, Ma has been locked inside a purpose built room in her captor's garden for seven years. Her five year old son, Jack, has no concept of the world outside and happily exists inside Room with the help of Ma's games and his vivid imagination where objects like Rug, Lamp and TV are his only friends. But for Ma the time has come to escape and face their biggest challenge to date: the world outside Room.

Emma Donoghue is an Irish-born dramatist for stage, radio and screen, a novelist, and a literary historian, now living in Canada. Her 2010 novel Room was a Man Booker Prize finalist and has sold almost two million copies worldwide; her screen adaptation was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
'While the 2015 movie version embraced realism, her stage version celebrates the original's inherent theatricality... As in the novel, this production makes Jack's inner monologue the prime narrative but in a coup de theatre, Little Jack is shadowed by Big Jack who provides that narrative voice. It's a deeply satisfying device that helps drive the drama while remaining true to the spirit of the source work... Ma's inner monologue is expressed in song and Bissett and Kathryn Joseph's musical numbers add a further dimension to Donoghue's gripping story [in] so rich a theatrical piece.' The Stage ★★★★

"A moving adaptation of the award-winning novel, with added songs, explores the mental toll on an abducted woman and her child" "a strangely moving work about the power of imagination and the pain of adjustment to a new reality."
★★★★ —The Guardian