Emma Donoghue: I write historical stories because they still feel alive to me

Her novel Room was nominated for a Booker Prize. Now the Dublin-born and Canadian-based writer is back with a brand new book.

Author Emma Donoghue is best known for her novels ‘Room’ and ‘The Wonder’. Picture: Fergal Phillips

Author Emma Donoghue is up early. It’s a crisp autumn day in Canada, a lovely mix of sunny and cold and she’s just back from bringing her teenager get her driver’s licence.

“I’m terrified at the prospect of my 16-year-old driving,” she admits, “but that’s just one of those irrational maternal emotions best kept for my fiction”.

The gripping nature of the 53-year-old’s fiction has earned her too many accolades to list, but Donoghue is probably best known for her novels Room and The Wonder, both of which were successfully adapted for screen.

Across her prolific 30-year career, her novels have ranged widely in content and context, but the intensity she brings to constrained spaces and complex relationships is a constant.

Her latest book, Learned By Heart, continues with that devastating intensity. Donoghue tells the story of two young girls on the margins of life, forging a connection that will last forever. 

It’s a mesmerising portrayal, inspired by the real-life diaries of 19th-century Eliza Raine and Anne Lister, “the first modern lesbian” known as Gentleman Jack.

How do you keep fit?

I try to spend at least an hour or two a day on [a treadmill] to stay fit.

Do you have a morning routine?

I’m always reading. I call it “food for the mind”.

What is one thing you do every day?

I may not always write something new, but I always open the laptop and I try to do something for one of my projects. I’m like a gardener keeping an eye on her plants.

What are your healthiest eating habits?

I’ve never drunk alcohol. It actually tastes like poison to me.

What are your guiltiest pleasures?

Malicious commentary, but for my partner’s ears only.

What keeps you awake at night?

The inevitability of death.

How do you relax?

I really enjoy sitting down to a good compulsive TV drama or even a witty comedy.

Who are your sporting heroes?

I honestly don’t care enough about any type of sport to have one.

What is your favourite smell?

I love the smell of gingerbread. I’d bake it just to fill the house with the scent.

When was the last time you cried?

I cried this morning. I was reading a play called The Laramie Project.

What is the best health advice you’ve ever been given?

That happiness helps you live longer.

What traits do you least like in others?

I really don’t like when people have difficulty apologising.

What traits do you least like about yourself?

I’m not a fan of arrogance or being judgemental.

Do you pray?

Yes, I do.

What cheers you up if you’re having a bad day?

If I’m having a bad day, I feel better by complaining in great detail to my loved ones.

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Lin-Manuel Miranda and no one else — I wouldn’t want to share his attention with anyone. (Miranda is an American songwriter and actor known for creating Broadway musical Hamilton and the soundtracks for animated films Moana, Vivo and Encanto.)

Has climate change impacted how you live your life?

Probably less than it should — but yes. I don’t fly on a whim anymore, for example.

What quote inspires you most and why?

I love William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” I write historical stories because they still feel alive to me.

What’s the one thing nobody knows about you?

If I’ve kept mum about it for 53 years, I’m hardly going to share it with readers of the Examiner now, am I?

• Learned by Heart is Emma Donoghue’s latest novel. It’s published by Picador. Emma will be reading in Dublin on October 4 at the Unitarian Church. Tickets from DubrayBooks.ie. She will also be speaking at the Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival on October 5. Tickets from dnlf.ie