RaveLiterary Review of Canada (CAN)To read Robertson is to witness a ventriloquism act ... Robertson intricately folds her many influences into every aspect of her work, sometimes in the form of their exact words. Riverwork is no exception ... Riverwork collapses time and individual experience. We are drowning, it seems to suggest, in torrents of information, memories, absences, desires, tears. We will all, always, drown in history ... Art is what awakens us to our drowning ... Masterful.
Emma Donoghue
RaveQuill & Quire\"Historical fiction often dwells in the gap between what happened and what was recorded. The best examples also explore the historical conditions for why that gap exists. Emma Donoghue’s latest novel, Learned by Heart, does just that ... The extent of the research is impressive, though at times it weighs down the narrative with unnecessary historical details, particularly in the first half of the novel. Nevertheless, Learned by Heart is a salient, passionate example of how historical fiction can expose and enrich histories that are otherwise obscured.\
