An occasional series on food in literature - I was very struck by this 2016 novel by the Irish writer Emma Donoghue, who wrote the bestseller Room. It's not so much a novel about food but the absence of food.It concerns a young girl in 19th centre Ireland who claims to be able to live without eating. It's a miracle! She becomes the object of pilgrimages for people who think her ability to live on nothing is divinely inspired. An English nurse arrives, practical and atheistic, who job it is to monitor the child day and night to prove that she is not secretly being fed. The nurse is convinced some sleight of hand is going on but she can't figure out how the child is surviving on nothing. But - once the nurse's vigil starts, the girl begins to starve. Evidently her food source has been cut off - but who is responsible? Darn, I've nearly told you the whole story. But there's such wonders to behold in the writing, and lots about the Irish famine, manna from heaven, local food and much else. Well worth reading.
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