Frog Music

There will undoubtedly be many opinions on this novel, the first full-length one Donoghue has written since Room.

Frog Music marks a return to historical fiction; this time, set in a muggy, smallpox ridden San Francisco in 1876, and based on true events.

Three former French circus performers — Blanche, a burlesque dancer, and Arthur and Ernest, trapeze artists — have settled deep in Chinatown.

The catalyst for the story is Blanche meeting the infamous, trouser-wearing, frog-catching Jenny Bonnet; and the driving force is the question, who murdered Ms Bonnet?

The story is also about a mother’s love for a child, a brief history of San Francisco in that time, and an education in French slang.

The story is fascinating, but it does drag in places, and I’d recommend reading her collection of short stories, Astray, first.

That said, Emma Donoghue is clearly a master storyteller.