The Wonder

Anna O’Donnell is the 11-year-old Irish girl whose fast is at the heart of The Wonder. At the beginning of the novel, Anna claims not to have eaten for four months. Anna is defined by her devotion to the Catholic faith and her curious nature. Although her health declines dramatically over the course of the novel, Anna’s faith and curiosity never fail.

Anna’s most obvious demonstration of faith is her fast. Toward the end of the novel, it is revealed that Anna believes that fasting and prayer will release her brother Pat from purgatory. The novel suggests that the “wonder” of the title is not Anna’s fast, but the strength of her faith, which allows her to live for months on very little food, and for nearly a week without anything.

Apart from her fast, Anna’s faith is evident in a number of smaller ways. At multiple points in the novel, Anna recites Bible verses as if explaining her actions: “‘I have slept and have taken my rest,’ quoted Anna, crossing herself again before pulling off her nightcap, ‘and I have risen up, because the Lord hath protected me.’” (71) This suggests that Anna’s faith propels her daily habits and thought patterns. Anna’s collection of religious objects—such as prayer books, cards with details about saints’ lives, and statues of the Virgin Mary—also testifies to her intense religious devotion. Anna’s faith is contrasted by Lib Wright’s atheism. The novel suggests that Wright’s encounter with Anna opens Wright up to faith.

Anna’s curiosity endears her to Wright and William Byrne. Early in their relationship, Wright teaches Anna about riddles, and the two exchange riddles throughout the novel. Anna also shows a great deal of curiosity about nature, teaching Byrne folk knowledge about local flora and fauna. Anna’s curiosity extends into the Epilogue, where, as Nan, she shares her excitement about Australia’s “new stars.”

Sister Michael is a middle-aged Catholic nun who is assigned to watch Anna alongside Wright. She is a foil to Wright; she strictly obeys her orders, while Wright begins to question them. Like Wright, Sister Michael was trained as a nurse. However, Sister Michael’s training was in a religious context; her religion is the most important thing distinguishing her from Wright.

Sister Michael is part of a Catholic institute of religious women called the Sisters of Mercy, a historical Catholic institution of religious women. The novel indicates that she served at the prestigious Charitable Infirmary (later the Jervis Hospital) during cholera epidemics and the Great Famine. The prestige and intensity of her training mirrors Wright’s training as a Nightingale, but with a religious twist. Sister Michael’s faith allows her to connect with Anna and the O’Donnells on an emotional level. Her knowledge of Catholic practices and theology is also essential to Wright’s eventual discovery that Anna fasts in an attempt to bring Pat to heaven. Ultimately, Sister Michael’s faith allows her to justify Anna’s rescuing: Although she admits seeing Byrne with Anna, she frames it as “an angel riding away with the child” (282). The novel indicates that Sister Michael understands what has happened. The phrasing also suggests that, like Anna, Sister Michael uses religious imagery to organize her life and thinking.

In addition to her faith, Sister Michael is defined by her obedience to her orders. Throughout the second half of the novel, Wright asks Sister Michael multiple times for her help in stopping the watch, citing how they are nurses responsible for the health of their patient. Sister Michael resists Wright each time; in one instance, she explains that she cannot disobey Dr. McBrearty’s orders because she’s “under a vow of obedience” (192). Sister Michael’s compliance distinguishes her from Wright.

William Byrne is an Irish journalist who comes to Athlone on assignment from the Irish Times. He is Lib Wright’s love interest and primary confidant in Athlone. Byrne is described as “a few years younger [than Wright], with that unmistakably Irish milky skin under garish curls, and an accent, but an educated one” (87). Throughout the novel, Byrne’s growing intimacy with Wright mirrors Wright’s increasing familiarity with Irish culture.

Byrne is characterized by his fervent anti-English sentiment and his experience as a reporter during the Great Famine. As a subject of the English colonial power in Ireland, Byrne has first-hand experience with the violence and oppression the Irish were subjected to during the Great Famine and throughout the colonial period. His willingness to share this history with Wright, who is English, is evidence of the strength of his anti-English sentiment, which outweighs his politeness. Byrne’s perspective is essential in shaping Wright’s understanding of rural Irish people and, by proxy, Anna’s perspective.

Byrne’s traumatic experience as a reporter during the Great Famine has an important impact on Wright’s thinking, and ultimately influences Anna’s fate. At the beginning of the novel, Wright is only vaguely familiar with the Great Famine; Byrne’s description of the period as “seven years of dearth and pestilence” (130) has a strong influence on Wright’s understanding of hunger and fasting. Byrne’s experience reporting on starvation and malnutrition during the Great Famine also allows him to immediately deduce that Anna is starving to death. One of the key symptoms Byrne identifies is the “odor of famine” (186), the foul breath that “goes vinegary as the body turns on itself; eating itself up” (185). Significantly, the smell of a patient’s breath “wasn’t one of the measurements [Wright had] been taught to record” (184). Although Wright is a trained nurse, it is Byrne’s first-hand experience during the Great Famine that ultimately helps to save Anna’s life.