What do you think?
Rate this book
The Donoghue Girl
Longing for a life bigger than the one she inhabits, Lizzie Donoghue thinks she's found a simple escape route in Michael Power, but soon discovers that she might have been mistaken...
The Donoghue Girl is the story of Lizzie Donoghue, the spirited daughter of Irish immigrants who desperately wants to not only escape Creighton--the Northern Ontario mining town where her family runs a general store--but also the oppressive confines of twentieth century patriarchy. She believes her escape can be found in Michael Power, the handsome young mine manager recently arrived in Creighton from the Ottawa Valley. Caught up in a complex familial love triangle, Michael first courts Lizzie's older sister, Ann, but then finds himself more and more drawn to Lizzie. Their lives twist and turn as they are all forced to face the harsh reality of the broken expectations of marriage and family just before the onset of WWII in Europe.
This is Lizzie's story, from beginning to end, and readers will fall in love with her bright spirit as she comes to realize her true strength.
The Donoghue Girl is the story of Lizzie Donoghue, the spirited daughter of Irish immigrants who desperately wants to not only escape Creighton--the Northern Ontario mining town where her family runs a general store--but also the oppressive confines of twentieth century patriarchy. She believes her escape can be found in Michael Power, the handsome young mine manager recently arrived in Creighton from the Ottawa Valley. Caught up in a complex familial love triangle, Michael first courts Lizzie's older sister, Ann, but then finds himself more and more drawn to Lizzie. Their lives twist and turn as they are all forced to face the harsh reality of the broken expectations of marriage and family just before the onset of WWII in Europe.
This is Lizzie's story, from beginning to end, and readers will fall in love with her bright spirit as she comes to realize her true strength.
324 pages, Paperback
Published September 19, 2024
1 person is currently reading
51 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 24, 2024
When Ann Power, the most beautiful of the Donoghue sisters, meets sweet talking Michael Power, she is impressed with his looks, confident way and his managerial job at the local mine. Living in a small mining town in Ontario before the beginning of WWII, the Donoghue girls have led sheltered lives. It’s no surprise that Ann succumbs to Michael’s charms and expects a lasting relationship.
It takes only a few months for the feckless Michael to decide that feisty Lizzie Donoghue is more his taste. He switches his affections creating a love triangle and rift between the two sisters. What ensues is a very slow and tedious description of the demise of a never should have happened marriage between a naive young woman and a selfish, volatile alcoholic man. For me the story line wore thin early on. More of a romance than literary historical fiction, I grew tired of the plot, the wishy washy women and completely obnoxious Michael. Likely there is an audience for this type of fiction but it’s not me.
My rating is a lackluster two stars. The Donoghue Girl was published on September 19,2024 so it’s now available for fans of romance genre. My thanks to NetGalley and Literary Press of Canada/Latitude 46 Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my review.
It takes only a few months for the feckless Michael to decide that feisty Lizzie Donoghue is more his taste. He switches his affections creating a love triangle and rift between the two sisters. What ensues is a very slow and tedious description of the demise of a never should have happened marriage between a naive young woman and a selfish, volatile alcoholic man. For me the story line wore thin early on. More of a romance than literary historical fiction, I grew tired of the plot, the wishy washy women and completely obnoxious Michael. Likely there is an audience for this type of fiction but it’s not me.
My rating is a lackluster two stars. The Donoghue Girl was published on September 19,2024 so it’s now available for fans of romance genre. My thanks to NetGalley and Literary Press of Canada/Latitude 46 Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my review.
October 29, 2024
Thank you to River Street Writing for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review!
2.5 - I think Fahner is a good writer, I could clearly see the town of Creighton as she was describing it. But the book moves so quickly that when one character dies early on readers don't feel any emotional attachment to their death, and few examples of Lizzie being wild and unmarriageable are shown.
Read the full review on my blog!
2.5 - I think Fahner is a good writer, I could clearly see the town of Creighton as she was describing it. But the book moves so quickly that when one character dies early on readers don't feel any emotional attachment to their death, and few examples of Lizzie being wild and unmarriageable are shown.
Read the full review on my blog!
April 13, 2025
I was pulled in to the lives of two sisters, Ann and Lizzie, in “The Donoghue Girl” by Kim Fahner. Two sisters wrapped in and lead through spirals of pain and passion with one single man, Michael Power. A handsome mine manager whose charisma and charm penetrate their world. Seduced by the same man, in an age of strict courting rules, the rural family in 1930s Creighton, Ontario, side-step around the orbit of a man who turns down one sister to pursue the other.
Immersive and carving out a seamless transition into the literary world of the Donoghue family, I was stunned and impressed with the family’s steadfastness in the wake of moral threat and life tragedies, while adhering to the rigid gender constructs of the time. A novel that I hoped would present a timeline of the resilience and fidelity of sisterly love, I was pushed to acknowledge and appreciate the ways these two sisters found freedom in a form of resistance within the perimeters of the ideological fabric they both were born into.
“The Donoghue Girl” offers a subtle critique, for me, of gender constraints and expectations during the novel’s timeline. “The Donoghue Girl” is Fahner’s first novel, but the Sudbury author has published five books of poetry previously and has made a mark as Sudbury’s poet laureate from 2016 to 2018. Published by Latitude 46 in Sudbury in September 2024, “The Donoghue Girl” has been acclaimed for presenting a fictional narrative based on familial history, that was continuous for me in the flow of the author’s voice to enter into the world of her characters.
The novel follows Ann and Lizzie and their trajectories of living from the 1930s in rural Ontario. Set in Creighton, Ontario, the forking and overlapping lives of these women are also set against other geographies like Garson, Sudbury and Petsamo, Finland. “The Donoghue Girl” is based off the family history and storytelling of the author’s own life, having received stories from one great-aunt passed down. Having grown up in the same locations in northern Ontario as the novel, Fahner is effortless in writing to convey the world of this historical family.
Fahner speaks of her family layers of “The Donoghue Girl” in an interview with OpenBook. “One of my great-aunts told me in my late 20s that my maternal grandfather, Len, had dated my great-aunt, Norah, before moving on to date her sister, Alice, who became my grandmother. I had never heard the story before, and it both shocked and intrigued me. I wanted to explore this triangle of a relationship in a creative way. Some of the novel is rooted in the architecture of family history, but most of what happens between the characters is made up as I never knew my grandfather.” Existing just before the onslaught of WWII and a creeping in of the Winter War in Finland, Fahner positions these characters in the centre of their own wars. Battles with each other and battles with themselves. Referred to as the Kennedy’s of Creighton, the Donoghue’s are an upstanding family with firm social fibre in the heart of a small-town.
Kim Fahner resides in Sudbury, Ontario. “The Donoghue Girl” is her first novel with Latitude 46 Publishing. She has published five books of poetry and two chapbooks. She is the First Vice-Chair of The Writer’s Union of Canada (2023-25). A member of the League of Canadian Poets and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Fahner was also Poet Laureate for the City of Greater Sudbury from 2016-18.
This novel pushed through contemplations of the character arcs of women in this time period and the constraints they felt. The storyline follows, for the majority, the life-line of Lizzie, the strong-minded and willful younger sister who ends up with the dashing Michael Power. She is wed and travels with him overseas on a honeymoon, the reader can become lost in romance and passion then. But, the marriage is not a story or turning-out of a carefully tied-together ending. As the couple settles into the reality and corners of their lives, Michael’s true colours begin to emerge and I was left wondering what would happen for Lizzie. Not to give away the plot, Lizzie finds relief and freedom in her own capacity of what was capable for women of her time. A shift in perspective for me too, even in my own time, of what women can seek in liberation amongst the sacrifices and familial duties they carry out. Lizzie’s character arc is accessible and relatable.
The novel could have shifted and included a more personal and first-person point-of-view of Ann’s trajectory. She goes through heartbreak and the feeling of betrayal from her sister. Instead of falling into another relationship, she remains independent, secures her borders and pushes out into the world on her own. That projection and facing of adversity is inspiring, but very much a peripheral sub-plotline that could have taken hold of the novel and grounded it down into themes of transformation, endurance and feminine grit as integral in self-preservation. A feminist plotline. But, the choice of scope of lens of the novel further accentuates what Kahner accomplishes for the Donoghue family.
As other reviews have noted, the greatest depth and range of emotions of one character in the novel is the matriarch, Mrs. Donoghue, who remains a hub to the family wheel. She is presented as a cold and strict mother from the eyes of her daughters in the beginning of the novel, to break from that mold as the novel progresses and it is the closeness and love of the family that carries them through hardship and challenges as their lives carry on. Ironically, it is the baseline components of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Donoghue who come to represent the ideal marriage for this time. I was not expecting that.
Fahner maintains the relatability and accessibility of her characters throughout this historical fiction with fluid dialogue, action and point-of-view. She moves their world along at a respectable pace and leaves the reader wondering how the characters would extend beyond the page. I fully recommend “The Donoghue Girl,” as a contribution to a reader’s list of contemporary Canadian literature.
Thank you to Kim Fahner, Latitude 46 Publishing and River Street Writing for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!
https://www.sarahailstone.com/book-re...
Immersive and carving out a seamless transition into the literary world of the Donoghue family, I was stunned and impressed with the family’s steadfastness in the wake of moral threat and life tragedies, while adhering to the rigid gender constructs of the time. A novel that I hoped would present a timeline of the resilience and fidelity of sisterly love, I was pushed to acknowledge and appreciate the ways these two sisters found freedom in a form of resistance within the perimeters of the ideological fabric they both were born into.
“The Donoghue Girl” offers a subtle critique, for me, of gender constraints and expectations during the novel’s timeline. “The Donoghue Girl” is Fahner’s first novel, but the Sudbury author has published five books of poetry previously and has made a mark as Sudbury’s poet laureate from 2016 to 2018. Published by Latitude 46 in Sudbury in September 2024, “The Donoghue Girl” has been acclaimed for presenting a fictional narrative based on familial history, that was continuous for me in the flow of the author’s voice to enter into the world of her characters.
The novel follows Ann and Lizzie and their trajectories of living from the 1930s in rural Ontario. Set in Creighton, Ontario, the forking and overlapping lives of these women are also set against other geographies like Garson, Sudbury and Petsamo, Finland. “The Donoghue Girl” is based off the family history and storytelling of the author’s own life, having received stories from one great-aunt passed down. Having grown up in the same locations in northern Ontario as the novel, Fahner is effortless in writing to convey the world of this historical family.
Fahner speaks of her family layers of “The Donoghue Girl” in an interview with OpenBook. “One of my great-aunts told me in my late 20s that my maternal grandfather, Len, had dated my great-aunt, Norah, before moving on to date her sister, Alice, who became my grandmother. I had never heard the story before, and it both shocked and intrigued me. I wanted to explore this triangle of a relationship in a creative way. Some of the novel is rooted in the architecture of family history, but most of what happens between the characters is made up as I never knew my grandfather.” Existing just before the onslaught of WWII and a creeping in of the Winter War in Finland, Fahner positions these characters in the centre of their own wars. Battles with each other and battles with themselves. Referred to as the Kennedy’s of Creighton, the Donoghue’s are an upstanding family with firm social fibre in the heart of a small-town.
Kim Fahner resides in Sudbury, Ontario. “The Donoghue Girl” is her first novel with Latitude 46 Publishing. She has published five books of poetry and two chapbooks. She is the First Vice-Chair of The Writer’s Union of Canada (2023-25). A member of the League of Canadian Poets and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Fahner was also Poet Laureate for the City of Greater Sudbury from 2016-18.
This novel pushed through contemplations of the character arcs of women in this time period and the constraints they felt. The storyline follows, for the majority, the life-line of Lizzie, the strong-minded and willful younger sister who ends up with the dashing Michael Power. She is wed and travels with him overseas on a honeymoon, the reader can become lost in romance and passion then. But, the marriage is not a story or turning-out of a carefully tied-together ending. As the couple settles into the reality and corners of their lives, Michael’s true colours begin to emerge and I was left wondering what would happen for Lizzie. Not to give away the plot, Lizzie finds relief and freedom in her own capacity of what was capable for women of her time. A shift in perspective for me too, even in my own time, of what women can seek in liberation amongst the sacrifices and familial duties they carry out. Lizzie’s character arc is accessible and relatable.
The novel could have shifted and included a more personal and first-person point-of-view of Ann’s trajectory. She goes through heartbreak and the feeling of betrayal from her sister. Instead of falling into another relationship, she remains independent, secures her borders and pushes out into the world on her own. That projection and facing of adversity is inspiring, but very much a peripheral sub-plotline that could have taken hold of the novel and grounded it down into themes of transformation, endurance and feminine grit as integral in self-preservation. A feminist plotline. But, the choice of scope of lens of the novel further accentuates what Kahner accomplishes for the Donoghue family.
As other reviews have noted, the greatest depth and range of emotions of one character in the novel is the matriarch, Mrs. Donoghue, who remains a hub to the family wheel. She is presented as a cold and strict mother from the eyes of her daughters in the beginning of the novel, to break from that mold as the novel progresses and it is the closeness and love of the family that carries them through hardship and challenges as their lives carry on. Ironically, it is the baseline components of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Donoghue who come to represent the ideal marriage for this time. I was not expecting that.
Fahner maintains the relatability and accessibility of her characters throughout this historical fiction with fluid dialogue, action and point-of-view. She moves their world along at a respectable pace and leaves the reader wondering how the characters would extend beyond the page. I fully recommend “The Donoghue Girl,” as a contribution to a reader’s list of contemporary Canadian literature.
Thank you to Kim Fahner, Latitude 46 Publishing and River Street Writing for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!
https://www.sarahailstone.com/book-re...
April 26, 2025
This splendid book, with razor-sharp imagery and spot-on metaphors, betrays the fact that this story is penned by an accomplished poet turned novelist. (Consider the plight of a single autumn leaf in a paragraph on p.193.)
Set in Northern Ontario mining country (with a side-story in Finland), the book centers on the trials and tragedies that befall the Irish-Catholic Donoghues, from the summer of 1938 to the spring of 1940 and the onset of the Second World War. They are a family of five siblings: the girls Ann, Maisie, Lizzie, Nellie, and son Jack. Their father, James, runs the town’s General Store and their mother, Bridget, runs the family’s household. The “girl” of the title is Lizzie – the main focus of the novel.
With the arrival in town of the heart-throb, Michael Power, and the ensuing love triangle involving him, Ann, and Lizzie – I quickly became engrossed in their lives and the destiny of this tightly knit (and skillfully portrayed) family. The story is, of course, a period piece steeped in the values and mores of the times. Yet it speaks to us today in the complexity of the characters and – to put it plainly – the fixes they get themselves into. I very much cared about them, and found myself both rejoicing and mourning the polar-opposite episodes of their lives.
With so much to savour in just a little over 300 pages, Fahner’s first novel is highly recommended.
Set in Northern Ontario mining country (with a side-story in Finland), the book centers on the trials and tragedies that befall the Irish-Catholic Donoghues, from the summer of 1938 to the spring of 1940 and the onset of the Second World War. They are a family of five siblings: the girls Ann, Maisie, Lizzie, Nellie, and son Jack. Their father, James, runs the town’s General Store and their mother, Bridget, runs the family’s household. The “girl” of the title is Lizzie – the main focus of the novel.
With the arrival in town of the heart-throb, Michael Power, and the ensuing love triangle involving him, Ann, and Lizzie – I quickly became engrossed in their lives and the destiny of this tightly knit (and skillfully portrayed) family. The story is, of course, a period piece steeped in the values and mores of the times. Yet it speaks to us today in the complexity of the characters and – to put it plainly – the fixes they get themselves into. I very much cared about them, and found myself both rejoicing and mourning the polar-opposite episodes of their lives.
With so much to savour in just a little over 300 pages, Fahner’s first novel is highly recommended.
November 24, 2024
Kim Fahner’s The Donoghue Girl is a beautiful book in which her skills as a poet are on full display, not only in the delicate touch with which she writes description but also in her pacing of the immersive narrative. The daughter of a prosperous Catholic-Irish immigrant family, the Donoghue sisters are known for their attractiveness. Tensions arise when Lizzie captures the heart of her sister’s beau, the handsome mine manager, Michael Power. Despite the “sister-code” of not ever dating your sister’s ex, Lizzie finds herself mesmerized by Michael’s physicality and the two marry. Rooted in a 1930s mining town, the story unfolds as alcoholism, mine safety and the threat of war play havoc on relationships. Fahner does a brilliant job of creating sympathetic characters with clay feet. Her insights into their relationships, pride and disappointments are breath-taking. Lizzie is an impulsive, self-absorbed, headstrong, indiscreet and utterly endearing character. The historic glimpses of mining in northern Ontario and in Finland during the period are engaging. This is not a book to be missed. Highly recommended.
April 11, 2025
I really enjoyed this novel. It's a work of Canadian historical fiction set in late-1930s Creighton (near Sudbury), a Northern Ontario mining town. A domestic drama, the book drew me in with its foreshadowing of a forbidden love story. In the early pages, we see protagonist Lizzie Donoghue’s attraction to her older sister Ann’s suitor, Michael Power, and Lizzie’s resolve not to act upon it. Through shifting narrative perspectives, we also gain entry into the minds and experiences of other characters, including Ann, a great beauty, and Michael, an ambitious mine manager with movie star good looks and a questionable past, who sets his sights on marrying into the upstanding Donoghue family.
By way of various reversals, Fahner keeps the tension strong. I was fascinated by her explorations of the social limitations imposed on women of the day and the stark realities of life in a mining community. Her study of pride is realistic and haunting.
If you like novels with sexual tension, feminist overtones, and portrayals of character evolution as well as psychological unravelling, I recommend reading The Donoghue Girl.
By way of various reversals, Fahner keeps the tension strong. I was fascinated by her explorations of the social limitations imposed on women of the day and the stark realities of life in a mining community. Her study of pride is realistic and haunting.
If you like novels with sexual tension, feminist overtones, and portrayals of character evolution as well as psychological unravelling, I recommend reading The Donoghue Girl.
March 28, 2025
The lives of women fall from the trees. Black Maple and Blue Beech. Seasons change, wars unfold, and secrets are held close to linen nightshirts. Fahner's debut novel about love, gender, and women working hard to keep both family and themselves together is quick-paced and inviting. In rich environmental and sensory detail, she brings northern Ontario and the inner lives of women we don't see too much in Canadian literature alive. Women caught in the first part of the last century, between sexist expectations, limited occupational options, and their burning desire for something else, something beyond the confines of family and men. I loved this book, 5-stars, highly recommend!
September 20, 2024
I enjoyed this book.The beginning felt a little disjointed but a little way in and everything started to make sense. I especially liked the characters. They were real and the book did not wrap the ending up in a neat little bow. It left things messy. Very well written with believable, interesting characters.
October 12, 2024
The Donoghue Girl is heart-wrenching historical fiction from a beloved Canadian author.With her incomparable ability to create immersive worlds, Fahner tells the story of an Irish Catholic family in a Northern Ontario mining town almost a hundred years ago. Kim's book just received a wonderful review in The Toronto Star!
April 10, 2025
The story didn't go where I expected, it's good to be surprised by an author. The story is set in Sudbury region, a community often overlooked in appreciating Ontario's history. I thank the author for writing about her home; we need more work by a Canadian authors, set in Canada, about Canadian history.
May 29, 2025
Full disclosure, I picked up this book after a writing retreat I took with the author. I'm so glad I did. This is a book about quiet, reflective moments, and a close examination flaws and strengths. Although the main characters are of Irish descent, this novel has the distinct mark and voice of the early Southern Ontario novelists. A fascinating read.
October 12, 2024
Really enjoyed this book! Immersive historical fiction!
Read
January 11, 2025DNF
January 5, 2026
a compelling hard to put down novel. see my forthcoming review in the Temz Review.
April 2, 2026
Interesting historical fiction about an area I grew up near. The characters evolved over the novel and were very much a product of their time. A fast read that I quite enjoyed.
January 2, 2025
I may be late in posting but don’t think for a second I didn’t read @kimfahner ‘s novel the second it hit my hands (Lu started it AT the book launch lol!). I am so proud of my beautiful friend’s beautiful book, full of places I know and familiar people. She talks about these black rocks and dark waters in a way that feels intrinsic. I know these things to be true. I’ve heard rumblings of a sequel and gosh I hope that’s true cuz Lizzie, I have so many questions girl. But we’ve all chosen the wrong person at some point so I get it. After I finished this book I walked my neighbourhood, finding all the spots in these pages, imagining these lives inside the houses. It feels like they are all peering out their windows at us now. What a treat this was and is for me. Kim I hope you are so proud of your work.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews