Emma Donoghue has plenty of "Room"

Irish author on the Man Booker Prize shortlist

“As a parent of two young children I had already done a lot of thinking about how you weigh up your duties as a mother with every other force in your life. I was also thinking of all those moments when a parent has to decide whether to give a child protection or freedom,” she says.

“There are moments when my son cycles madly ahead of me and I think no, stop! But I don’t tell him to because I also want him to have a free childhood. When I heard about the Fritzl case it was like a bell ringing. I thought a book from the point of view of a child in a situation like that could be a whole other story.”

Writing Room was a miraculously straightforward experience, Donoghue says.

“I have never had a book come so easily. I had to write it. I don’t come from a background of being a hugely popular, crowd pleasing author,” she says.

“If I had I would have worried people wouldn’t like this. It really didn’t occur to me to recoil from the subject matter. If you try to be a crowd pleaser you inevitably fail at it.”

The book was an immediate sensation when it debuted in Ireland and Britain in August, but the news about the Man Booker Prize nomination still changed everything.  Being selected as a candidate for the biggest fiction prize in the world has just taken the author and her work to the pinnacle of her career.

The past few days have been a whirlwind and they’ve turned Donoghue into something she may never have anticipated: an international celebrity.  So how does it feel?

“I’m feeling great but a little bit intellectually vapid because in between interviews I don’t have any thoughts,” Donoghue says. “I realized that publicity at this level is kind of a full time activity. It’s been phone interviews and photo shoots, and then I go and pick up the kids from the school bus. It hasn’t stopped.”

Home for Donoghue, who was born and raised in Dublin, is now London, Ontario where she lives with her same sex partner, a college professor. When her partner was offered tenure there several years ago the two decided to make a life in Canada together.

The family has now grown to include their two children Finn and Una. And it’s the normality of daily life in a sleepy academic setting that keeps her feet on the ground.

“Usually writing the next book keeps me occupied, but I have to say the publicity around this one has gotten so intense that it’s distracting me. I do find the mockery of my friends is keeping me grounded though. It’s the most helpful thing,” she says.

“The night the Booker shortlist came out I had friends over for a curry and they were making fun of me for being included in the list. It was just deeply relaxing that they were celebrating it and simultaneously taking the piss.”

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Nster.com