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    Quarantine: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Quarantine: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Quarantine: A Novel
    Ebook410 pages5 hours

    Quarantine: A Novel

    By John Smolens

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A “thrilling” novel of an eighteenth-century New England town and a powerful family caught in the grip of an epidemic (The Boston Globe).

    The year is 1796, and a trading ship arrives in the vibrant trading town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. But it’s a ghost ship--her entire crew has been decimated by a virulent fever which sweeps through the harbor town, and Newburyport’s residents start to fall ill and die with alarming haste. Something has to be done to stop the virus from spreading further. When physician Giles Wiggins places the port under quarantine, he earns the ire of his shipbuilder half-brother, the wealthy and powerful Enoch Sumner, and their eccentric mother Miranda. Defiantly, Giles sets up a pest-house, where the afflicted might be cared for and separated from the rest of the populace in an attempt to contain the epidemic.

    As the epidemic grows, fear, greed, and unhinged obsession threaten the Sumner family—and the future of Newburyport.

    From “a rare and gifted writer,” Quarantine is an eloquent and dramatic portrait of a city plagued by mysterious pestilence—as the isolation of the quarantine reveals the darker side of human nature (Andre Dubus III). 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPegasus Books
    Release dateSep 4, 2012
    ISBN9781453271414
    Unavailable
    Quarantine: A Novel
    Author

    John Smolens

    John Smolens is author of Cold, The Invisible World, Fire Point,and The Anarchist. Cold was an Amazon “Best Pick” in 2001 and The Anarchist was given an “Editor’s Choice” pick by The Denver Post. John received his MFA from the University of Iowa and is currently head of the MFA program at Northern Michigan University. Visit his website at www.johnsmolens.com.

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    Reviews for Quarantine

    3.5/5

    28 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 2/5
      I struggle when trying to review this book. It is not a bad book; it is also not what I expected. It moves very slowly, and not much occurs in the plot. It is well written, with enough character development to keep you interested, but I don't know if I would recommend it to a friend. Perhaps only avid readers such as myself who I knew would stick with it to the end. I found the ending to be kind of a let down - there was a lot of build up and then.... nothing. Just ended, over. Not a fan.I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exhange for an honest review. Honestly, I am glad I did not spend money on this book.
    • 4/5
      So often as a reader, we are presented in historical fiction unspecified details of how life was at the time. However, in this book set in Early American historical times (1796), we have exactly the opposite. The reader is awarded a tale of the decimating conditions that surround the small harbor town of Newburyport, MA when a ship arrives carrying an epidemic which swiftly spreads to the population when those quarantined on board the ship escape. The story is told through the experiences of two main characters - Dr. Gilles Wiggins, the town physician who initiates the quarantine, and Leander Hatch, a young man who looses his entire family to the "fever". These two characters, so different in their backgrounds and yet so alike in their principles, show how good people can overcome any adversity presented to them.This was a powerful story which had a few slow spots in the narration but the characters and the ordeal carried it through.
    • 4/5
      Quarantine surprised me in the brutal truth of the times. Newburyport ,Mass in 1796 and a ship comes into port with diseased passengers on board. At that time disease spread like wildfire and that is why this ship is put in quarantine and no one is allowed on board or off. True to the times, passengers did embark and then put the town at risk and sure enough, the disease takes off and the lives of the townspeople will never be the same. The brutality of the noble class, the plight of the poor and the lack of control most of these people had over their future is a wonder. The only concern I had was that the book was too true and mature for some younger audiences to handle. Giles the forlorn doctor who drinks to hide the pain , Enoch who drinks because he is afraid that his way of life is ending, Leander who will lose everything and mature overnight, the numerous servants who endure and Marie who is on the run only to find happiness for a short while. Their stories are real and we fall for them immediately. Your heart bleeds for Leander who will lose his whole family and way of life with this disease but finds a new career, love and greater understanding. Fantastic in its realism but just enough danger to pull in the teens.
    • 4/5
      John Smolens seems to have come full circle with the publication of QUARANTINE, his latest novel, set in the Massachusetts town of Newburyport twenty years after the American Revoluction. His first novel, WINTER BY DEGREES (1988), was set in the same town but nearly 200 years later. This northern New England seaport is a venue well known to Smolens, who spent several years there following his graduation from Boston College doing restoration work on colonial era houses.Although QUARANTINE is perhaps a bit slow in its pacing and lacks the element of suspense that has been so important in almost all of Smolens' previous novels, he does present a fine cast of characters in this carefully crafted story of an epidemic that rages through the town, terrorizing and decimating its population. Protagonist 'Doctor' Giles Wiggens is an admirable hero in his self-sacrificing dedication to the people of his town and his tireless efforts to save the victims in the hastily erected 'pest house.' Medicine is obviously a science still in its infancy, as evidenced by Wiggens' own lack of training other than as a 'sawbones' surgeon who learned his trade on ships treating mutilated and wounded sailors during the war of independence. Forty-ish, Giles lives a near monk-ish existence in a spare set of rooms, while his older half-brother, Enoch Sumner, lives a dissolute and decadent life on the wealthy side of town in a mansion which also houses their calculating and most UNmaternal mother, Miranda. There are children from Enoch and Giles, some legitimate, some not. There is much drinking, carousing and skulduggery by Enoch, his spoiled son, Samuel, and others that precedes the epidemic and continues throughout. Leander Hatch is a young man, 19, whose entire family is wiped out by the mysterious fever (which is raging all up and down the east coast), but manages to overcome his terrible loss and rise above the fear and nastiness in the town that accompanies the plague. There are love interests for both Giles and Leander who share a mysterious bond. And while the ending takes a surprising twist, it seems fitting and believable, and the Epilogue serves to wrap things up in a profoundly satisfying manner.Although the story seems at times to flounder in its forward momentum, particularly when Smolens switched too rapidly back and forth between subplots and characters, I couldn't help but picture the story in cinematic terms. The plot, the setting, the finely drawn characters, the love stories and the episodic action - which even includes a brief but violent skirmish between ships at sea - all cry out for a Technicolor transfer to the big screen.Bottom line. This is vintage Smolens with a post-colonial flavor, i.e. a damn good book and well worth your time. I enjoyed it.
    • 3/5
      In 1796, a ship, the Miranda, was refused docking in Newburyport, Mass. and was placed in quarantine by the local surgeon because of an epidemic on board. Unfortunately, some of the ship's passengers and crew managed to evade the quarantine and reach the town. The plague quickly spread, leaving the town devastated.I had mixed feelings about this novel. I enjoyed the parts involving the epidemic: the different points of view of the doctors, including the surgeon who gained his skills on a battlefield, the depiction of the epidemic, the religious fervour it engendered, the construction of the pest house, and the attitudes of the people as the death toll mounted.On the other hand, I found some of the back story both annoying, uninteresting, and unnecessary. This was especially true of the ship's owner and his mother as well as the French girl who may or may not have been French aristocracy. The bit about the apothecaries all being robbed of needed medicines and then having them offered back at exorbitant prices was less than believable. These parts of the story strained my willing suspension of disbelief and did nothing to move the story along.Still, if you push all the unnecessary debris aside, there's a very interesting story here about people's attitudes to disease in colonial America. Mr Smolens is clearly a talented writer. I hope he revisits this story someday leaving out the parts that only served to bog it down like the shipowner's dissolution and give us a story which tells us more about how epidemics shaped the New World.
    • 3/5
      The year: 1796Location: Newburyport, MassachusettsSituation: The Miranda, a ship owned by the wealthy and powerful Sumner family, now returned from a trip to the Caribbean, is at anchor in the Merrimack river basin, having been denied its request to tie up at the wharf as the town's harbourmaster, Caleb Hatch, suspects the ship may be carrying a contagion on board. A quick trip out to visit the anchored ship has Doctor Giles Wiggins demanding the yellow flag be raised and all individuals on board the Miranda quarantined and not allowed to leave the ship.So sets the stage for Smolens' quick reading historical fiction story. Smolens presents the time period and the 'outbreak' with an eye for authenticity while maintaining a writer's skill for weaving a story designed to capture a reader's interest. As a lover of historical fiction, I found this story to be the right blend of historical facts/details and entertaining fictional story-telling for a relaxing summer read. It captures it all: the unrest in the town as the contagion shows signs of spreading, the concerns of the business community of the economic ramifications of closing the harbour to all trade as well as the religious stance that the ill brought this on themselves as God's will, all building in momentum as the community - in the form of two doctors and volunteers - tries to treat the ill and stop the disease from spreading further. The characters have just enough personality to allow the reader to like/hate/roll eyes at what they get up to and the story has enough medical details to capture my attention. The clash of medical viewpoints of the time period are enough to cause one today to gasp in horror - to think of a fever as being caused by an individual's behavior, as a result of the imbalance of the bodies humors or as a result of a volcanic eruption on a different continent is easy to sniff at today, but are valid medical positions postulated in history. This is more of a light read - nothing too taxing or requiring excess levels of concentration or comprehension to understand. I recommend picking up this one for a quick read if you enjoy historical fiction or have an interest in Massachusetts of the time period.
    • 3/5
      Smolens writes a novel about a small, Massachusetts harbor town in the late 1700s. A trading ship comes into port with a number of extremely crew. The authorities quarantine the ship. He shows us the action through the eyes of the son of the harbormaster. The oldest son of the richest family in town owns the ship and needs the money from its crew to carry on his profligate lifestyle. His younger brother is one of the local doctors. The book is well-written and holds interest. It is not great literature, but it is worth a read as a good way to while away some time.
    • 4/5
      In 1796, a trading ship arrives in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The captain’s missing, crewmembers struck by a virulent fever. Vomit and shit create more victims in Newburyport. Upon inspection of the ship, doctor Giles Wiggins places the ship and port under quarantine and tries to find the source for the virus. His half-brother Enoch Summer, owner of the ship and their mother Miranda aren’t pleased at all with the situation. Horses for Thomas Jefferson need to stay on the ship, commerce falls silent and more and more victims are brought to a pest-house, some die others set fires to escape misery.The harbormaster’s family falls victim to the fever, except for his son, Leander Hatch, who is taken in at the Sumner mansion. He turns out to be a rebel. A beautiful French woman named Marie Montpelier is rescued out of the Merrimack River, causing both Giles and Enoch fall in love. A man from Boston stockpiles medical supplies and charges a high price.The novel or historical thriller if you want takes you along the dark circumstance in the harbour, where love and hope ultimately prevail, but death, dishonour and broken families are the sacrificies at the Revolutionary War-era Atlantic coast. The author of Quarantine, John Smolens‘ work on the book began 40 years ago, when he moved to a federalist house built in the 1790s in Newburyport. In the years that followed he came to know every inch of the house and the rich history of this harbour.The novel isn’t an easy to read and put away book. Quarantine contains a lot of historic and maritime details, plus a set of interwoven personages. Only at the end, in a lengthy Epilogue, some clues are found. Characters could be worked out better, both at the vessel as in town. I found it hard sometimes to mention exactly where in the storyline I was. Continue reading without worrying is the best solution there.