This audio-book consisted of nine CDs and was read by Michal Friedman, Eilen Archer, Suzanne Toren, & Robert Petkoff. The story is told from the viewpoint of a five-year old boy.

Jack, who has just turned five, wonders where he came from in the opening. He and his mother live locked in a room-11' by 11'- and in abject poverty. The room is the only world Jack knows as he is made to believe that it is the only world. There is a TV in the room that they watch, but Jack thinks what he watches is only "pretend."

Their captor is a man Jack calls Old Nick. Old Nick has tricked Jack's mother seven years ago by asking her help about his non-existent dog. He has kept her locked inside a shack with only a skylight. The shack, which is in his garden, is one he had built sturdily and with great care so no one could get in or out, except Old Nick himself, through a metal door with a coded key pad. He has broken Jack's mother's wrist, raped her, and keeps forcing her for sex every night while Jack sleeps inside the wardrobe. Jack's Ma and Jack are afraid of Old Nick.

It will be up to Jack and his mother to eventually break free of this man's clutches. Whether they do it or not, the listener and the reader have to find it for themselves.

seeing how a compelling novel can be brought out of a news story.

the suspense, the child's innocence, and how the writer could get inside a child's head to present his views so convincingly.

very bad for Jack's mother. It also made me think about many subjects.

Emma Donoghue lice in Canada. Born in 1969, she is an award-winning Irish playwright, literary historian, and novelist.
Some of her work: Touchy Subjects, Stir Fry, Hood, The Sealed Letter, Life Mask, Slammerkin, Landing, Kissing the Witch, The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, don't Die Wondering, I Kow my Own Heart.

It is one suspense after an excellent set-up that details Jack's and his Ma's life in the "room," and it is also thought-provoking where life's dilemmas are concerned.

This story was based on a true incident.

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Created Aug 10, 2011 at 3:19pm • Submit your own review...