Room by Emma Donaghue

There were six books short listed for the 2010 Man Booker prize and this book is one of them. This is the third of those books that I have read ('The Long Song' and 'Parrot and Olivier in America' being the other two), and it is by far the best fit to be a 'Booker Prize Winner'. And the truth be told, often times the books that were short listed but did not win are less quirky and more enjoyable than the winner. Last year's Booker Prize winner, 'Wolf Hall' is a notable exception to that rule, but it is not unusual for the best book that I read all year in a particular year to fit this rule of thumb. This book did not win, as it turns out, but that is neither here nor there--I put the book on my list of things to read after Ayelet Waldman praised it.
'Room' is not only well written, it is a unique voice, a difficult story to tell, and it comes off as realistic and with a glimmer of hope. Almost like it had been written by a female Cormac McCarthy. The story is told through the eyes of a young boy. He is the child of a woman who has been captured, kept in a room that doubles as a prison, and used for sex by her captor. The boy does not understand this is different from other children, he doesn't know that most people leave their rooms. When he sees it happening on TV he thinks it is make believe. So he is not traumatized, he is matter-of-fact. We are the ones who are appalled as the story quickly unfolds.
The boy and his mother make an escape finally, and it is the second half of the book that is most appealing from my point of view--how do people reintegrate after such a traumatic event? That goes about as poorly as you would expect it to go, and the slow but steady unraveling of the thin cloth that held everything together in the midst of horror starts to fall apart.
Wonderfully written, and not nearly as emotionally ravaging as you would predict.