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Room: the unputdownable bestseller that inspired the Oscar-winning film Paperback – 7 Jan. 2011
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A major film starring Brie Larson, winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Best Actress BAFTA Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Orange Prize and a Richard and Judy Book Club selection.
Jack is five. He lives with his Ma. They live in a single, locked room. They don't have the key.
Jack and Ma are prisoners.
Room by Emma Donoghue is an extraordinarily powerful story of a mother and child kept in isolation, and the desire for, and price of, freedom.
'Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days.' – Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife
- Print length412 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPicador
- Publication date7 Jan. 2011
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions22 x 15 x 2.5 cm
- ISBN-109780330519021
- ISBN-13978-0330519021
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Product description
Review
Room is one of the most profoundly affecting books I've read in a long time. Jack moved me greatly. His voice, his story, his innocence, his love for Ma combine to create something very unusual and, I think, something very important . . . Room deserves to reach the widest possible audience -- John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
I've never read a more heart-burstingly, gut wrenchingly compassionate novel . . . As for sweet, bright, funny Jack, I wanted to scoop him up out of the novel and never let him go ― Daily Mail
This is a truly remarkable novel. It presents an utterly unique way to talk about love, all the while giving us a fresh, expansive eye on the world in which we live ― New York Times Book Review
Startlingly original and moving . . . Endearing and as utterly compelling as The Lovely Bones ― Scotsman
This book will break your heart . . . It is the most vivid, radiant and beautiful expression of maternal love I have ever read ― Irish Times
I loved Room. Such incredible imagination, and dazzling use of language. And with all this, an entirely credible, endearing little boy. It's unlike anything I've ever read before -- Anita Shreve
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 0330519026
- Publisher : Picador; Main Market edition (7 Jan. 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 412 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780330519021
- ISBN-13 : 978-0330519021
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Dimensions : 22 x 15 x 2.5 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 22,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 298 in Film & Television Tie-In
- 1,402 in Science Fiction Crime & Mystery
- 1,642 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is a writer of contemporary and historical fiction whose novels include the international bestseller "Room" (her screen adaptation was nominated for four Oscars), "Frog Music", "Slammerkin," "The Sealed Letter," "Landing," "Life Mask," "Hood," and "Stirfry." Her story collections are "Astray", "The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits," "Kissing the Witch," and "Touchy Subjects." She also writes literary history, and plays for stage and radio. She lives in London, Ontario, with her partner and their two children.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book compelling and well-written. They describe the emotional content as heart-wrenching, poignant, and gripping. The writing quality is praised for its clever language and quick prose style. Readers find the story interesting and realistic. The book provokes thought-provoking questions about happiness and freedom. The pacing keeps them hooked and engaged.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find the characters well-drawn and the story compelling. The simplicity of the story is spellbinding, and the author does a brilliant job of taking a thought and making it remarkable. The story is both open and satisfying at the same time.
"...Jack is beyond an average five year old in some ways, able to read fluently; this made sense as with endless hours to occupy in a small place, only..." Read more
"...Jack appears extremely competent and literate which shocks yet pleases the reader, and his yearning to learn more about what's "in outside"..." Read more
"...- other reviewers have gone before, but the simplicity of the story is totally spellbinding; narrated by Jack, the many quirks of an oftentimes..." Read more
"...I think that Donaghue has done a brilliant job of taking a thought that the entire world had "what must it have been like for them?"..." Read more
Customers find the emotional content gripping and poignant. They describe the story as touching, sad, and thought-provoking.
"...Room, can be described as a literary fictional drama, and was inspired by the harrowing imprisonment by Joseph Friztel upon his daughters...." Read more
"...To sum up, this story is compelling; beautiful; tragic; awful; laugh-out-loud-funny; thrilling and very, very emotional...." Read more
"A beautifully conceived and emotionally engaging novel...." Read more
"...There are also odd inconsistencies in the narrative...." Read more
Customers appreciate the writing quality. They find the dialogue clever and easy to read. The prose style is quick and easy, and the author does a wonderful job developing the story. The narrator's voice is poignant and relatable, making the tale understandable for readers.
"...Room is most certainly an alternative read that opened my eyes to the selfishness, and unnecessary desires of material possessions within modern life..." Read more
"A compelling and consistently written read - I don't think this author has bettered it since." Read more
"...Room is very well-written, the characters of Jack and his mother extremely well-drawn and the storyline beautifully played out...." Read more
"...This is a well-written and original book and fully deserves the hype it has received...." Read more
Customers find the book engaging and believable. They praise the vivid imagination and realistic writing style. The story flows smoothly, with a compelling plot and a disturbing theme.
"...It may be the perfect holiday companion because of how quickly you will want to read it, but it is most definitely NOT a throwaway book once you've..." Read more
"...to comprehend but then considering their situation I think it is quite believable...." Read more
"...to have it set from Jacks perspective was ingenious as it added a new element to the story, him questioning his surroundings, his relationships and..." Read more
"...-affirming tale; Jack's innocence, obsession with numbers and lively imagination makes the captive existence he and his Ma endure bearable for them..." Read more
Customers find the book thought-provoking and uplifting. They say it makes them stop and think about happiness and freedom. The message is one of hope, but it's uncomfortable. Readers appreciate the deeply empathic experience and clever deliberation on the strength of the mother. Overall, they describe it as an alternative read that opens their eyes to selfishness and unnecessary desires.
"...time, at times I found it disturbing but at other points it was heart warming, funny and throughout I kept turning the pages to find out what would..." Read more
"...Room is most certainly an alternative read that opened my eyes to the selfishness, and unnecessary desires of material possessions within modern life..." Read more
"...The mother was also, for me, so inspiring, reminding all of us what we can rise to in the face of adversity...." Read more
"...This is one of those books that makes you stop and think, it'll stick with you long after you finish reading it...." Read more
Customers find the book's pacing engaging. They describe it as moving and intense, with an interesting setup to their life in the room. The story picks up pace and readers find it hard to put down.
"...story is compelling; beautiful; tragic; awful; laugh-out-loud-funny; thrilling and very, very emotional...." Read more
"...shown by both characters as the events of the plot unfold is profoundly moving...." Read more
"...It was a mix of baby-talk and complex adult dialogue. Half the time I felt like I didn't understand what he was talking about...." Read more
"...One of the strengths of this book is the pacing – Every milestone achieved brings with it a fresh challenge, just like child development!..." Read more
Customers appreciate the believable characters and empathy with them. They find the story engaging and start to understand the characters quickly. The narrator's voice is described as poignant and humorous. Overall, readers describe the book as an interesting and courageous novel that explores human resilience and inventiveness.
"...It's a lesson in the inventiveness and resilience of the human mind...." Read more
"...Donoghue does a wonderful job in creating characters that you can believe, Jack is not street smart but he is intelligent, his relationship with Ma..." Read more
"...think I’ll struggle to forget, so mesmerising is the tale, so appealing is its narrator and so horrifying a premise to dwell upon, I now understand..." Read more
"...I'm glad I stuck with it as Jack becomes an endearing character...." Read more
Customers find the content unrealistic, repetitive, and predictable. They feel the narrative is too mature for a 5-year-old child, and the characters are naive.
"...Everything is seen through his eyes. His life is boring, stunted, deprived obviously and his narration is taken up with the endless repetition of..." Read more
"...I think while the time frame on the whole made for a slightly unrealistic content, stylistically it worked and was a decision well made." Read more
"...The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars as it was slightly predictable however this didn't detract my enjoyment form the book...." Read more
"...There is also much of interest missing from this book, because Donoghue chose to narrate the story through Jack...." Read more
Reviews with images

An Engaging Main Character & Brilliant Dialogue
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2010I wasn't supposed to finish this book in less than 24 hours, there were other things I should have been doing (such as sleeping), but "Room" is the kind of book that once opened demands to be read. The characters in it stay with you long after the final page is turned.
The Room of the title (capital letter intended as it is what the narrator calls it), is an eleven foot by eleven foot shed which is the whole world for one little boy, Jack, aged five and his mother. At the start of the book it is Jack's birthday, all seems normal as he is woken and given his present, but we soon realise that this is not a five year old in a normal situation by any means. As the book unfolds we learn that his 27 year old mother has been imprisoned after being kidnapped in a sound proofed shed with no windows and just a skylight for 8 whole years. In this time she has given birth and has constructed a whole universe for her son where there is no "outside" but where there are routines and rituals as the mother fights for some sort of normal, and indeed to survive.
The whole book is seen through the eyes of Jack and in his language. Having a four and a half year old myself I did wonder how much this style would grate, but actually it works really well as we as readers discover the world along with Jack himself. On the cusp of leaving infanthood behind him Jack is beginning to wonder how things work, where does the man who brings food in the night time when he is asleep in "Wardrobe"get the food from and is the world he sees on TV real or imaginary? I was totally convinced by the veracity of Jack and never doubted his dialogue or his ability to process the world. Jack is beyond an average five year old in some ways, able to read fluently; this made sense as with endless hours to occupy in a small place, only five books and next to no actual toys, his childhood is obviously far from the average and given few distractions I imagine you would focus your child's development on the few areas you can control whilst trying to make the ones you can't bearable. Though bizarre in the extreme, this childhood is punctuated by a few familiar things like "dora the explorer" that any mother would probably recognise and his behaviour is authentic in terms of representing a five year old who wants to watch TV a little longer or doesn't want to go to bed, even if bed is the place you are hidden at night so you are not seen.
All this might sound as if it makes for a depressing book - it's not at all, though it is at times horrifying it's never horrific as such. I found myself having to re-evaluate the things that surround my everyday existence, in Jack's world where items are so few and far between that they are almost personified - there's "Bed" and "Light", the limited things he knows being made proper nouns as, as far as Jack knows they are the only ones that exist. In my life there are probably too many "things"- only the bare essentials fill Room and any of them can be removed at any time, and the only way to fight back is to hide a race track you have drawn under Rug or make a toy fort out of bottles. It's a lesson in the inventiveness and resilience of the human mind.
We never see anything through Jack's mother's eyes and indeed never know her name but by seeing the way she keeps her child occupied with PhysEd of sorts and making things out of old egg shell, and by what is a very authentic mother-child relationship we come to have a fair idea of who she is. For me she became more than a victim of an abuser and was a real, though not idealised mother - she's not perfect and there are days where she is "Gone", as Jack puts it, an adult reader can interpret the images that Jack gives and work out that her absences are depression and the "screaming game" at the skylight is an attempt to escape.
Clearly the idea for this book has a basis is reality as there have been several high profile cases of late such as that of Natascha Kampusch who was kept imprisoned from the age of 10, that clearly inspired the book. I find it remarkable that the author could convince me so completely of the existence of Room and the characters, I really did want them to escape and could understand why the mum hadn't told Jack about the world outside. I felt scared for him as he started to find out more about the wider world where there are germs, hundreds of other people and far much more complexity - how would he cope if faced with a world where the amount of food and things there were was not controlled by a monster who comes at night and is named "Old Nick" - would real life measure up to life on TV that up to now was the only other reality you believe to exist? How would you cope with a world ready to label you as the "bonsai boy" or where journalists wanted to take pictures of you to share with a news hungry world?
To find out I really suggest you read this book, it's perhaps the most remarkable work of fiction I have read for some time, at times I found it disturbing but at other points it was heart warming, funny and throughout I kept turning the pages to find out what would happen next, when I ended I wanted it to go on. Though the idea of a character who doesn't know the world is bigger than it seems is not new (think "The Truman Show" or even"Bolt"), this book does have an interesting twist on that idea and the author manages to turn the horrific into the compelling, for me the book worked on every level. I highly recommend it, it could be your most unforgettable read this year as it is mine.
Note: I read this book in kindle format, it is also available in paper back and hardcover form - I haven't actually seen a physical copy of this book , but should note that in kindle there were a few typos and some odd formatting in parts, but this did not detract from the book.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 December 2012Room by Emma Donoghue is the seventh of her novels, and takes a more alternative direction in terms of literary writing style and content in comparison with her other works. Room, can be described as a literary fictional drama, and was inspired by the harrowing imprisonment by Joseph Friztel upon his daughters. The novel is narrated by Jack in a noticeably childlike manner, a five year old boy who lives locked away with his "ma" in room, a purpose built shed within Old Nick's garden.
Room is a disturbing, traumatic tale of a mother who tries to raise her child after having been kidnapped at age nineteen by Old Nick, and consequently bears a child from him. Yet at the same time the relationship between Jack and "Ma" is a beautiful representation of the power of love, and the human instinct to survive and make the best of things in the most unusual situations.
Through Jack's innocent and honest narration, we learn of the true horrors they both endure within their captivity, such as "Ma's" instruction for Jack to sleep in the wardrobe during the night, due to Old Nick's arrival. Jack refers to counting how many creaks Old Nick makes, a seemingly innocent childlike statement which reveals the horrific continuous rape his mother endures daily.
Room is also a story of child development, and accentuates the necessity of reading and parental interaction upon learning and growing up. Jack appears extremely competent and literate which shocks yet pleases the reader, and his yearning to learn more about what's "in outside" highlights the inquisitiveness of children and their desire to learn new things about the world. In addition, as a reader we learn to care for Jack and almost want to protect him, especially when he becomes vulnerable towards the middle of the novel.
It could be argued that the novel is a representation of the hidden unspoken struggles within modern life, or an eye opener of the true suffering that goes on in the world. Specifically noticeable through the representation of "Ma" who remains extremely brave, level headed and composed apart from when she is "gone," in order to ensure her son has a reasonable level of sanity and somewhat normality. However later on in the novel, the cracks most certainly begin to show, highlighting the alarming mental effects that can occur after such a horrifying ordeal.
Room is most certainly an alternative read that opened my eyes to the selfishness, and unnecessary desires of material possessions within modern life. The novel highlighted to me how all you really need is an appreciation of what's around you, as well as an unconditional love for the people within your life. It could be said the novel has taught me some life lessons, and opened my eyes to what is really important, and if you are looking for a different and somewhat emotionally challenging read then Room is definitely the perfect choice.
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on 21 February 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Love it
Loved it more than the movie. This book is a must read
-
mlaReviewed in Spain on 21 March 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisito pero la introducción debería estar al final, te lo cuenta todo!
Me ha encantado, uno de esos libros que se quedan en tu cabeza mucho después de haberlo leído. Muy bien escrito, no conocía a esta escritora pero leeré más de sus libros (aunque se ve que este es con diferencia su libro más popular). Un aviso: NO LEÁIS LA INTRODUCCIÓN antes del libro en sí si no conocéis la historia con antelación, es un espoiler masivo y me parece fatal que en ella se explique toda la historia hasta el final, no entiendo cómo han decidido hacerlo así, es lo único que no me ha gustado del libro y creo que debería estar al final, no al principio.
- Dâmaris Leite FerreiraReviewed in Brazil on 18 December 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
Delightful!
- NoriReviewed in Japan on 27 July 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book.
I was recommended from a coworker. Interesting.
- LaurieReviewed in Australia on 30 May 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous talent, great book
Emma Donoghue's book Room is a finely crafted piece of fiction that takes the reader inside an horrific circumstance through the eyes of a five year old boy. The first chapters create the sinister environment, providing clues about the reality of what is happening and tension builds as it is remains unclear that the situation will end successfully. The complexity of the resolution and aftermath are equally skillfully portrayed. The book moves from a frightening to a compelling read. Donoghue's deft talent is displayed through the convincing writing of the novel in the first person voice of a young boy. While not for the faint-hearted, the book is a fascinating and rewarding read.