El prodigio

by Emma Donoghue

First published 2019

Elizabeth Wright arrives in a small Irish village in 1840 to watch eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell. The girl hasn't eaten for four months, yet she remains alive. Local Catholics believe Anna is a saint. Pilgrims leave gifts and money for her farming family. The town committee hires Lib to observe Anna for two weeks and verify the miracle. She shares watch duties with Sister Michael, a nun Lib doesn't trust. Journalist William Byrne covers the story for his newspaper. Lib tells him about her observations as she grows convinced the family is running a fraud. She struggles to uncover how Anna survives without food while managing the girl's parents and the interfering nun. The investigation becomes more complex as Lib develops feelings for Byrne. She must solve the mystery of Anna's survival while confronting the darker forces at work in the devoutly religious community.

Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, thriller, 19th-century

Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator

Setting: Ireland

Period: 1840

432 pages · Paperback · B de Bolsillo

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