THE LITTLE CITY FIVE: Emma Donoghue (ROOM, The Wonder)

1.  What do you like best about Ireland?

The chatter, the gab, the slagging: the free spirited, occasionally dangerous and always garrulous way we talk.

2.  Is Lib's reaction to perceived Irish backwardness of that era related at all to your own of other eras?

Yes, but Lib also has to learn that many of her own preconceptions of the Irish are sheer prejudice. I see the novel as a sort of dialogue between England and Ireland, science and faith.

3.  What percentage of your historical fiction writing is drawn from research vs. imagination?

It can’t be quantified, because the research is the rich soil from which the flowers of invention spring.

4. Name three favorite books: one from early cihildhood, one from teenage years, and one from adult life.

Alice in Wonderland, Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, and A Little Life.

5. What comes to mind when you hear the word Hoboken?

Didn't it just get named Hipster Capital of America?