PHOTO ANDREW BAINBRIDGE
Over the past 20 years, novelist Emma Donoghue has become known for sensitive, witty portrayals of lesbian romance and tightly-plotted historical yarns. There’s Stir-Fry, a gentle coming-of-age story about a girl who moves in with a lesbian couple in 1980s Dublin; Landing, a cheerful take on the trials of a long-distance queer relationship; The Sealed Letter, about a scandalous 19th-century divorce. However, her name is now permanently associated with her 2010 publishing sensation, the story of Jack, a five-year-old boy who lives with Joy, his mother, in a locked room. Excavating issues of sexual violence, gender identity and parenthood, Room has sold over two million copies, won numerous prizes and, this year, become a deeply moving film.
Emma Donoghue lives a settled existence with her partner and two children in Canada, a far cry from the turbulent drama of her novels, though the character of Jack is partly based on her son as a child. So what was it like to tell the story of Jack and Joy, first on the page and then, as a screenwriter and executive producer, on film?