Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Tuesday, February 14 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

[{"displayPrice":"$10.63","priceAmount":10.63,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"10","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"63","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"aYtYG7qATKg7nlkSGHCObjNyI1az7K8TrQN%2BJL7RKM3SqLZX2NVar4zIqd3xQkYOt6TCCxmD4CQ4Psu8yZFeApJLpUIKK9RQLLO2W2IHgv5qPDwaRhkkKgPflKDCUV9dviWc0Mv6DZyGqE5deqlhErrKsTMQK3mVOE1fYUbusLWGxeIf5r7tSX1LzKeLY0kQ","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$9.56","priceAmount":9.56,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"56","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"cR2COy9Z9f0yU8Wy8TuI17eYsBZIVNSUdo8KH%2BSE%2FgHtsuaajzw4vb%2BT8qgHZpTYobYJfFxBvvyjzSf%2BUTEI28gT0WPDPL9W07PqImaWHospo5Xw4nc8jRuw2MQoE3kNyvNfFutaUPGUkiFS2%2BYZhRjpuTdZeQWGXaQT%2B5NAI2X91XvBCeoecVtiCUKJ1zXD","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$10.63 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

Juanita Wormwood

Details

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

Juanita Wormwood

Return policy: Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Monday, February 13 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Martistore

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$6.04
+ $4.69 shipping

Sold by: PattyJs

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Emma Donoghue

Room: A Novel Paperback – Unabridged, September 25, 2012

by Emma Donoghue (Author)

11,622 ratings

Editors' pick Best Literature & Fiction

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$7.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover, Deckle Edge

"Please retry"

$15.00

$7.89

$1.48

Paperback

"Please retry"

$10.43

$4.88

$1.49

Paperback, Unabridged, September 25, 2012

$10.63

$6.04

$1.27

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

$7.99

$16.09

$1.17

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$19.98

$3.98

$2.61

Enhance your purchase

Held captive for years in a small shed, a woman and her precocious young son finally gain their freedom, and the boy experiences the outside world for the first time.

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating -- a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.

Print length

384 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Little, Brown and Company
Publication date

September 25, 2012
Dimensions

4 x 1.25 x 6.75 inches
ISBN-10

0316223239
ISBN-13

978-0316223232
See all details

Frequently bought together

+
+

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

by Emma Donoghue Paperback
$10.63
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Juanita Wormwood and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Feb 14
by Aravind Adiga Paperback
$10.79
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Get it as soon as Saturday, Feb 11
by Koonchung Chan Paperback
$16.00
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Get it as soon as Monday, Feb 13

Emma Donoghue
3,218
Paperback
87 offers from $1.90
Emma Donoghue
623
Hardcover
72 offers from $6.31
Emma Donoghue
9,115
Paperback
101 offers from $2.34
Emma Donoghue
1,352
Paperback
89 offers from $1.49
Emma Donoghue
61
Paperback
50 offers from $2.34
Emma Donoghue
726
Paperback
90 offers from $2.25

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence into horror and horror into tenderness. 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 and Her Fearful Symmetry

"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, author of The Pilot's Wife and A Change in Altitude

"Room is that rarest of entities, an entirely original work of art. I mean it as the highest possible praise when I tell you that I can't compare it to any other book. Suffice to say that it's potent, darkly beautiful, and revelatory."―Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours and By Nightfall

"Powerful.... Seen entirely through Jack's eyes and childlike perceptions, the developments in this novel--there are enough plot twists to provide a dramatic arc of breathtaking suspense--are astonishing.... Donoghue brilliantly portrays the psyche of a child raised in captivity...will keep readers rapt."―Publishers Weekly

"A novel so disturbing that we defy you to stop thinking about it, days later."―Sara Nelson, O Magazine

"A bravura performance."―ELLE

"Only a handful of authors have ever known how to get inside the mind of a child and then get what they know on paper. Henry James, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and, more recently, Jean Stafford and Eric Kraft come to mind, and after that one gropes for names. But now they have company. Emma Donoghue's latest novel, Room, is narrated by a 5-year-old boy so real you could swear he was sitting right beside you.... Room is so beautifully contrived that it never once seems contrived. But be warned: once you enter, you'll be Donoghue's willing prisoner right down to the last page."―Malcolm Jones, Newsweek

"One of the most affecting and subtly profound novels of the year."―Ron Charles, Washington Post

"A riveting, powerful novel....Donoghue's inventive storytelling is flawless and absorbing. She has a fantastic ability to build tension in scenes where most of the action takes place in the 12-by-12 room where her central characters reside. Her writing has pulse-pounding sequences that cause the reader's eyes to race over the pages to find out what happens next....Room is likely to haunt readers for days, if not longer. It is, hands down, one of the best books of the year."―Liz Raftery, Boston Globe

"Remarkable....Jack's voice is one of the pure triumphs of the novel: in him, she has invented a child narrator who is one of the most engaging in years - his voice so pervasive I could hear him chatting away during the day when I wasn't reading the book....This is a truly memorable novel, one that can be read through myriad lenses - psychological, sociological, political. 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."―Aimee Bender, New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an Irish emigrant twice over: she spent eight years in Cambridge doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature before moving to London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their two children. She also migrates between genres, writing literary history, biography, stage and radio plays as well as fairy tales and short stories.

She is best known for her novels, which range from the historical (Frog Music, Slammerkin, Life Mask, Landing, The Sealed Letter) to the contemporary (Akin, Stir-Fry, Hood, Landing). Her international bestseller Room was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and was a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; Reprint edition (September 25, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316223239
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316223232
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4 x 1.25 x 6.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,062,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,124 in Kidnapping Thrillers
- #41,894 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #122,686 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
11,622 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Emma Donoghue

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

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

4.5 out of 5

11,622 global ratings

5 star		67%
4 star		19%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

RSC

Really Hard Read!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 5, 2023

Verified Purchase

This novel was a really gut-wrenching story. I love Jack as the narrator, and the author did a great job with the emotional impact of the kidnapping. What a story of survival and recovery!

Helpful

Haunting, Unique, Compelling ... You Won't Forget This Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 29, 2010

Verified Purchase

I'm sure that somewhere in your home you have a room that measures about 10×10 or 11×11.

I want you to imagine this room. Now take out all the windows (but you can have one little skylight). Put a locked door on it that cannot be open from the inside. Soundproof it. Strip it down to only the bare essentials: a bed, a hotplate, a wardrobe, a table, two chairs, a rug, a bath, a rocker. You can a TV, a few books, a few games. Get comfy. You're going to be spending quite a bit of time here. About seven years in fact.

The first few years you'll be alone except for some nightly visits from the person who has put you in this room. (Let's call him Old Nick.) Eventually these nightly visits will result in the birth of a child. Your child. Let's call him Jack. Let's call you Ma.

You now have a baby in a windowless locked room. You have to raise this child by yourself, while protecting him, as much as possible, from Old Nick.

How would you do it? How would you keep yourself from going insane? How would you provide Jack with as "normal" a life as possible, considering that the only world he has ever known is this room? And, what do you think would happen if someday, someday, you managed to get out of the room?

I believe Emma Donoghue must have went through a thought process like the one I posed to you above, and the results can be found in her brilliantly disturbing yet heartbreakingly beautiful novel ROOM. And, in a genius twist, Donoghue chose to write the novel from the point-of-view of Jack--and this makes all the difference.

By writing from 5-year-old Jack's point-of-view, we are spared the unbearable horror of Ma's experience. Instead of being a torture chamber, Room becomes not such a bad place after all. Oh sure, the things Outside that Jack sees on TV seem kind of cool, but they are just pretend. (After all, in Room Jack doesn't feel wind or see clouds or dogs or other children or animals or dirt.) But Room has plenty to keep Jack busy--from Egg Snake under the bed to Phys Ed time to a seemingly endless variation of word games that Ma has invented. And there is Sundaytreat, which might sometimes even result in chocolate!

And most of all, there is Ma. What child doesn't want a mother who is always present, attentive and creative? In Jack's view, Room is a cozy little world of two. Of course, Ma is Gone sometimes, but she always comes back eventually. And yes, Old Nick makes those nightly visits and all kinds of weird creaking sounds, but Jack just hides in the wardrobe. (Ma doesn't like Old Nick to see Jack.) Room is Jack's whole world. It is all he's ever known, and he doesn't really need anything else.

So when Ma suddenly starts "Unlying" and talking about Outside and how they might get there, you can imagine that Jack might not be all that excited. It is a lot for a 5-year-old to take in. It is like someone told you were going to go live on the moon, away from everyone who loves you. Could you go? What would happen if you made it? What would happen to your world?

I cannot even tell you how brilliant and engrossing this book is and how riveted I was by Jack's world and, behind it, the darker shadow world that Ma lived in. In some ways, ROOM reminded of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go--in that the protagonists live an almost dream-like existence in a nightmare world, protected and sheltered from the reality of their situation by their innocence and ignorance. Although we see Jack's story unfold in the book, within it and behind it we come to know Ma's story too, which is as horrific and nightmarish as anything I can imagine. Yet by not telling the story from Ma's point of view, Donoghue elevates ROOM to something magical and special and amazing. Yes, this book will disturb you, but it will also uplift you and show you how good can grow from evil, that love can save you, and that what is broken can be put back together again. Read it.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

hildita

Well worth both buying and reading.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

I actually watched the movie first.. and while I found it fascinating (just as I find the real life stories of girls/young women kidnapped and held captive for years fascinating.. even if I do wish all of them were just as fictional as the story of Jack and his Ma).. the book managed to touch me on a deeper level. Its one thing to watch a movie version of the story.. its quite another to read the story from the perspective of our protagonist; Jack. I'll freely admit I started crying more than once while reading.

Its important to keep in mind that he's a 5 year old boy (a bit below that when the story starts) and so his language skills and knowledge reflects that. His rather large vocabulary and knowledge for his age also reflects that he has been his mother's sole source for comfort and joy and actual conversations (instead of threats and force+) since she was locked inside Room.

Going from his Ma and their Room being the only things in the entire world (except Old Nick when he visits at nights and Jack has to sleep in the Wardrobe) to a gradual awareness that things aren't the way he thought it was and his Ma does not want to be in there is heartrending to read. Never mind the concepts and ideas and more he struggles with and just can't comprehend because his world is so very very limited.

When he starts talking with his mother of turning 6 the next year (and what he'd like to get then).. one can almost feel his Ma's renewed and growing desperation for them to escape. .. But then when they finally do... there's no easy road ahead for them as the book isn't even halfway over and their battle for 'normalcy' (or something like it) has only just started.

The conclusion feels somewhat cathartic and while I would have liked to read more of their story (instead of 'just' the book ending).. its also a reminder that just like with the real girls/young women that inspired the story; we should feel privileged and grateful for the short period in time when we were allowed to be a part of. .. And then we should let them get on with their lives as best they can without being outsiders hounding them for more.

This is one book I both can and will get back to and reread. It will be interesting to see what I'll notice then that I didn't notice (or consider) during my first read-through. Highly recommended.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Cleopatra

Room - Emma Donoghue

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

I put off reading this book for ages, in part was because I knew the narrator of the story is very young, just five in fact and I often struggle with child narrators. The other part is that it sounded way too miserable to put to the top of the list after all Jack and his Mum have been imprisoned in a room for his entire life…

But, I was glued to the book, it was mother apart from limited one of those I couldn’t put aside and while Jack’s narration probably isn’t a true reflection of how any child, even one whose whole vocabulary comes from another adult, it was pitched at a level to remind us he is a child, at a level so that whilst the innocence shone through but without compromising the telling of a story.

We get an idea of how Jack’s mum didn’t give up, she threw the whole of her energy into entertaining, nurturing and teaching Jack with limited resources, just five book and a TV for outside stimulation, everything else had to be invention on her part. There are physical education lessons which involve racing round the bed, all sixteen of Jack’s steps and using the bed to put on trampoline routines. She imposes strict routines for meals, for chores and for bedtime where Jack sleeps in the wardrobe to be out of sight if ‘Old Nick’ comes to visit. It is this, the sheer resilience of this young woman, only twenty-six at the point we enter the story, that prevents this from being a misery-fest and turns it into something quite special indeed.

Because Jack’s life is so narrow it would be very easy for the story to be repetitive and as fun as his musings over Dora the Explorer and Barney are, I’m pleased to confirm that the story has far more to offer than I initially expected. Through Jack’s eyes, and ears, we get to see how the pair ended up in the room in the first place allowing the reader to plug the gaps which may not completely take away the horror of the story unfolding but makes it a tad more bearable than if this had been told by the mother.

For me it was the latter chapters that had the most impact and gives rise to some of the important questions that perhaps aren’t easily answered. On Jack’s fifth birthday he is told by his mother that the life on the TV exists outside his room. There is far more than the slither of sky and moon he can see through the skylight if they stand on the table. The world is big, there are other people than the two he knows about and yet he struggles with the concept and questions things in a way a child born into a life which isn’t behind a locked door would never do.

Heart-rending and yet uplifting, Room is one of those books I 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 why this book caused the stir it did when it was published in 2010.

28 people found this helpful

BookLover76

Overlong

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

Overlong, dull, boring... This might have worked as a novella, but dragged on far too long as a novel.
Maybe it would have helped if the author had broken the sections of the story into smaller chapters - but I found myself thinking, "For goodness sake! - how much more of this until we get to the end of the chapter?"

SPOILER ALERT COMING UP - FOR ANYONE WHO DOES WANT TO READ IT:

First part - after one chapter, I got it. Young woman is obviously being imprisoned as a sex slave and is bringing up the child she had as a result in an environment where he knows nothing of the outside world. Got it now - don't need any more boring, repetitive detail - so skipped to "escape".

Second part - woman & child now trying to adapt to life outside. Obviously, woman coping better, as she wanted to get back to normal life - child having difficulty coping with this "brave new world". Did we have to dwell on the breast-feeding so much? Surely she would have worked out by now that this ISN'T normal? She was supposed to have been nineteen when incarcerated - she would have known that a 5-year-old shouldn't still be having breast milk! (Would the breasts even continue producing that long? - Is it biologically possible? - I have no idea!)
Skipped to end.

End - nothing special. didn't feel there was any kind of "wrap-up".

This book won awards - God knows why. Unless you have problems with insomnia and need to get something to send you off to sleep, please don't waste your money...

3 people found this helpful

J. McDonald

Room.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

A beautifully conceived and emotionally engaging novel.
Told entirely from the perspective of a child, Donoghue takes a distressing, dark subject and turns it into a compelling, life-affirming tale; Jack's innocence, obsession with numbers and lively imagination makes the captive existence he and his Ma endure bearable for them both. It's established throughout the book that Jack is a bright child, his mother an intelligent, educated young woman; how they cope with life in the room and later outside in the real world is the whole substance of the novel; it`s a subtle study of how a mother/child relationship endures and adapts to extreme situations – and in that respect, it`s a deeply human story.
The courage and fortitude shown by both characters as the events of the plot unfold is profoundly moving.
It's obvious of course, that if this had been told from Ma`s perspective it would have been a very different, far more harrowing (and conventional) story – we all know of real-life horrors this fictional story draws on; there's a justifiable degree of contrivance to the whole enterprise, but that`s an acceptable aspect of the novel.
I was surprised – not to say dismayed by the negative reviews the book has received on these pages – particularly from readers who couldn't even make the effort to accept the language in which it is written; I feel most sorry for those who have tried to intellectualise arguments to justify their lack of engagement.
I suppose some folk just lose the poetry and wonder of the world when they move into adulthood.
Ignore the naysayers and read this book - accept it on it`s own terms – I was moved by it and I recommend it unreservedly; it`s an uplifting, rewarding read.

3 people found this helpful

Printress Pauline

Not entertaining. Drags.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

Read this for a book club. For me it dragged for the first 150 pages and (spoiler....) it only picked up at the escape. Even then I felt it was a chore to read it. The plot is simple. A woman is kidnapped, eventually bears the kidnapper a child, loves the child who with the mother exists for 5 years in the restrictive world of a small room. They escape eventually and the rest is related to how mother and child coped with the bustling outside world. Finally it winds up nicely to a satisfactory end. I would not have read this book club choice on my own, because at no point did I feel entertained or lost in the book. I’ve recently concluded though that I don’t enjoy books narrated by children.

6 people found this helpful

KIKAREN

Live Freeor Die

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 13, 2016

Verified Purchase

ROOM [By Emma Donoghue]. Went into this having read no reviews or seen the film and really not knowing a thing about it.

As everyone except me now knows, it is about a woman locked in a room somewhere in North America with her five year old kid. The narrator’s voice is that of the five year old. Everything is seen through his eyes. His life is boring, stunted, deprived obviously and his narration is taken up with the endless repetition of mundane daily tasks: eating, reading and re-reading the same five books, television, games and exercises. All in a room eleven ft square. So it pretty quickly becomes a boring, repetitive book; there are only so many childhood thoughts to interest the reader.
He is precocious. His mum teaches him to read and write way beyond his age-level and of course this would be a likely outcome of an intense one-on-one relationship between an intelligent young woman and a bright kid where there are no other distractions. In fact knowing no other life the kid Jack, is full of five-year old curiosity. A bit too much for me and the voice became irritating ‘Wonderland’ about a third of the way through particularly set my teeth on edge and the whole thing is too long.

But there are some brilliant set-pieces in it. Old Nick’s little speech on how lucky they are is a terrific piece of writing; parking Ma is very, very clever although the reasons for the parking don’t ring true at all; the escape is good, some reviewers have a problem with it but she [ED] could have done this in twenty different ways so what does it matter. Jack is oblivious to the heroic efforts that his mother makes to protect and entertain him, but these are obvious to the reader; you still think the world that you live in is normal and it will always represent home to you.

Also, I loved the way that no-one ever says, ‘I love you’. Most excellent.

I hadn’t realised that Emma Donoghue specialises in writing novels using real lives and real stories as source material. She researches, then writes her version. In interviews, she says that it wasn’t the confinement story that interested her it was the later adjustment to the outside world she wanted to engage with and in fact the novel is very clearly divided in two, the capture and imprisonment then the release and the adjustment.

Just a bit too long. I can see what she is doing, building, building, building showing not telling but it goes on for too long.

12 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Buy new: $10.63$10.63 FREE delivery: Tuesday, Feb 14 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Juanita Wormwood

Buy Used: $9.56

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Room: A Novel Paperback – Unabridged, September 25, 2012

Enhance your purchase

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Emma Donoghue

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$10.63

FREE delivery: Tuesday, Feb 14 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Ships from: Amazon

Sold by: Juanita Wormwood

Buy Used:

$9.56