For her next book after bestselling hit,Room, Donoghue draws inspiration from a handful of historical newspaper articles and stories, creating a collection of short narratives that are remarkably engrossing, despite their length.  Using lushly drawn backdrops, she dramatically explores the themes of loss, struggle, love, grace and determination, all which accompany the strikingly rich characters who are adrift in time and place, detached from their roots; gone astray.  In “Onward”, a Victorian Londoner decides prostitution is the only way to keep her family afloat while in “The Widow’s Curse” that empathy is upturned  when readers encounter a beautiful woman who cons a young lawyer in order to obtain her living husband’s fortune in 18^th-century New York.  It is amazing how Donoghue brings these long-forgotten figures back to life in order to tell their stories with such heart.  Although a departure from her last thriller, Donoghue returns to her other specialty as a historical storyteller in Astray.