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    Year of Wonders
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    Year of Wonders
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    Year of Wonders
    Ebook339 pages6 hours

    Year of Wonders

    By Geraldine Brooks

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘March’ and ‘People of the Book’.

    A young woman’s struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village.

    In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp fabric carried with it bubonic infection.

    So begins the Year of Wonders, in which a Pennine village of 350 souls confronts a scourge beyond remedy or understanding. Desperate, the villagers turn to sorcery, herb lore, and murderous witch-hunting. Then, led by a young and charismatic preacher, they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine. The story is told through the eyes of Anna Frith who, at only 18, must contend with the death of her family, the disintegration of her society, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit attraction.

    Geraldine Brooks’s novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of 17th century science and religion to deal with a seemingly diabolical pestilence. ‘Year of Wonders’ is also an eloquent memorial to the real-life Derbyshire villagers who chose to suffer alone during England’s last great plague.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJul 14, 2011
    ISBN9780007390359
    Unavailable
    Year of Wonders
    Author

    Geraldine Brooks

    Geraldine Brooks was born and raised in Australia. After moving to the USA she worked for eleven years on The Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. Her first novel, Year of Wonders, was an international bestseller and she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her second, March. She has written three further bestselling novels, Caleb’s Crossing, People of the Book and The Secret Chord.

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    Reviews for Year of Wonders

    4/5

    3,089 ratings224 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Why do authors have to spoil books with disappointing endings? I was captivated by this book as Brooks brought to life the events of a village during the plague year of 1665. Her descriptions of the disease, the death of the villagers, the heroic decision to isolate the village so that the plague stayed contained and the daily struggle to remain alive were fascinating. Full of courage, hope, despair, the sense of community, love and fear, this book had me enthralled. Then the ending came!!! Couldn't the story have finished with Anna riding away from her village with the babe instead of the far-fetched epilogue that was tacked on? I felt robbed! The ending is the only reason why I didn't give "Year of Wonders" five stars.
    • 4/5
      Young Anna Frith narrates events in her small English village in the years of 1665-1666 when they are visited by plague.Black Death was a major scourge when there were huge advances happening in science and Reformation in religion, yet few really understood exactly how it was transmitted or what caused it. Basing her story on the true English village of Eyam, Geraldine Brooks explores how people react in crisis situations, the extremes of self-sacrifice or in turning on another. Was the plague really sent by God as a call to repentance? What role does faith have when the world is falling apart - and what if this isn't sent by God after all? This was gripping, intense reading, and my only real complaint was that Anna seemed just a bit to modern to be believable and the end, while it made sense for the character in one way, stretched credulity in my mind.
    • 4/5
      Very good book. Historically accurate. Nova did an interesting program about the town of Eyam and it's survivors.
    • 4/5
      "If all who have the means run each time this disease appears, then the seeds of the Plague will go with them and be sown far and wide throughout the land until the clean places are infected and the contagion is magnified a thousandfold. If God saw fit to send this scourge, I believe it would be His will that one face it where one was, with courage, and thus contain its evil." Geraldine Brooks again picks a piece of history to weave together a story that both illuminates the time and speaks volumes about the human condition. I have read several of her novels and have enjoyed them all, perhaps March being my favorite. In this story, Ms. Brooks uses Anna Finch, a maid to the rector of the church, to narrate how the people in a small town in England,(this part true), were convince by their religious leader to quarantine themselves in an effort to not spread the Plague. Anna lives a simple, noble existence, married to a miner when her life takes a turn. He is killed in a collapse and as a widow, she takes on a lodger. He is a tailor who has traveled greatly and whose garments probably contain the fleas that bring the bubonic plague to the small village. Her story of working for the rector, forming a close friendship with his wife, Elinor, and her transformation over time make for fascinating reading, all wrapped in a tapestry of actual events. I Highly recommend and will continue to make sure I've read of this author's works
    • 5/5
      The is an extremely well written book of the life of Abraham Lincoln and his rise to power. It chronicles his life from birth to death and how each event made him the amazing President that he was. A great read! You may become discouraged as it is very long, but if you can stay with it, you will be inspired!
    • 4/5
      The author reads the story and her voice was a little strange but soothing. It's the story of the year in a life of a plague survivor in 17th century England. It's terribly sad, but also has its sweet moments. Anna's story ends fancifully, but she deserved nice things.
    • 1/5
      I don't expect historical fiction to be entirely without anachronisms. It is inevitable that the work must have a few of these to be relatable to the modern reader. This book, however, just has too many for me to enjoy. DNF at 12%.
    • 4/5
      This was a very well written historical fiction novel. I thought Brooks did an amazing job of describing life for the working classes during the plague. She also did an amazing job of describing the wealthy attitudes toward the plague and how to prevent it. This would have been a five star book for me except for the ending. That did not seem very realistic to me.
    • 3/5
      Anna Frith's life is already filled with despair when the English village in which she lives is infiltrated by the plague in 1666. We are escorted to the front lines of this torment and watch the suffering that doesn't escape any family. While the choice to quarantine themselves prevents the plague from spreading to surrounding cities, the death toll rises daily within the village. Ultimately, we see the best in some, the worst in others, and the pure ugliness in the plague.The historical aspects of the novel were fascinating. However, I didn't believe in Anna's character as a 17th century English woman or some of the other characters, which made it a bit difficult for me to fully appreciate the story line. And, the ending . . . well, I'll call it peculiar. It felt like Brooks pulled a scenario out of a hat, tacked it on the end, and called it a day. Odd, very odd. (3.25/5)Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..."
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written, but I found the ending disappointing. Maybe that's more my problem than Geraldine Brooks'!
    • 4/5
      A year in the life of a remote British village decimated by the bubonic plague & inspired by the actual town commemorated as Plague Village because of the events that transpired there in 1665-1666. I mean what's not to like ? I loved the book but found the epilogue a bit far reaching..
    • 3/5
      The ending was just so random.
    • 4/5
      A remarkable story of a small village in 1666 attempting to survive an outbreak of the plague. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the emotion and characters were compelling.
    • 5/5
      This has got to be one of the msot fabulous books I've read in a long time. I loved the trueness of the characters, and the historical interpretation of the year of the plague in this small village was just incredible. I'm all about passing this book along! Definitely read it!
    • 4/5
      I found this historical fiction piece about the Plague *extremely* fascinating. It's been a few years since I read it, so I don't remember many of the details. I would read it again, though.
    • 2/5
      This novel followed the life of a sewing girl during the year her village isolated itself from the rest of the world to contain an outbreak of the plague. While the details of seventeenth-century life were interesting, I never felt that the story elevated itself above mere romance mixed with grotesqueries.
    • 4/5
      Is it wrong to describe a novel of the plague a lovely? This book does such a wonderful job of telling the tale of a small village and the struggles that the village faces. Sometimes these novels focus on the ugliness of the times, the awfulness of people--Brooks manages to show us how change can bring out our strengths, and bring a positive light to our lives.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book. I picked it up in an airport and I timed it so that I wouldn't finish until my plane landed, but the last 20 pages or so were missing. I was dying to read the ending and had to wait for it to come through ILL, because I didn't want to buy it twice. I don't usually read historical fiction, but I can't resist a good pandemic story.
    • 4/5
      Year of Wonders (2001) traces a young woman who looses all her loved ones to the plague in a 17th century small English village. As the protagonist struggles to find the will to keep living, she learns that the survival of her own soul is linked to that of the others in the village. It is a story of courage and human dignity in the face of death, disease and superstition.
    • 4/5
      I've had this one on my TBR list for quite a while, so I was thrilled when our Seniors Book Club chose it for the fiction selection for August. We'll meet next Monday to discuss it and I have a feeling it will be a hit. Brooks tells the story of how one village, under the leadership and inspiration of its Vicar Montpellion and his wife Elinor, chose to isolate themselves and seal off the village for an entire year to prevent the plague from spreading. The story is told from the voice of Anna Frith who emerges as the central character. A young woman, widowed with two children, barely in her twenties, she is employed by the Vicar's wife to help in the rectory. They send a boarder to her, a young tailor who brings a bolt of cloth with him, and who subsequently develops the plague. Ultimately, the belief is that the cloth contained the seeds of the plague. As the tailor dies, he begs Anna to "burn it, burn it all."Once the people of the village decide to isolate themselves, the vicar helps them develop an infrastructure to meet their needs, giving them a way to maintain contact with the outside world without physical interaction with humans. As more and more people fall ill and die, Anna and Elinor become more adept at nursing, the villagers either come to rely on their religious faith, or fall away in despair. Superstition abounds, as does suspicion of anyone gifted in the the healing arts. Not only do we learn about plague, and about human kindness and meaness, we also are painted a picture of early lead-mining techniques: the dangers, laws, and results of the perilous endeavor which was the backbone of the economy in the village. While Anna raised sheep and grew a few crops, as a widow, she had no way of mining her late husband's claim, which fell to others to take over when he was killed in a cave-in. This is a powerful book, written with great attention to detail and showing much evidence of research and familiarity with the setting and the science. The characters are compelling. There are extreme acts of bravery and love, and equally extreme acts of savage cruelty and selfishness. Brooks has us believing them all. In the end, dire secrets are revealed, and lives are forever altered. The ending is stunning - I had to read it twice to catch it because I almost couldn't believe what I thought I read. Year of Wonders should be a definite addition to your TBR pile if you like history, good characters, and a little health science too.
    • 3/5
      When the Black Death strikes a village in the English countryside, a charismatic minister persuades the villagers to quarantine themselves to avoid spreading the infection. Told from the perspective of Anna Frith, a servant in the minister's household, Year of Wonders is the story of the village's year in confinement. Although this book is quick-reading and absorbing enough that I missed my stop on the train, I couldn't shake the feeling that the plot was contrived. The quarantine and Plague are real events in English history and with a situation like that, there's no need to over-dramatize. Nonetheless Anna and her best friend the minister's wife get themselves in scrape after scrape, even including a dangerous mining expedition. Meanwhile, the details of Anna's endless nursing are lost in generalities like "I was called on at every waking moment." Every day moments are neglected in favor of big scenes and while I don't doubt that many ordinary people lost their sanity, Brooks assumes that the Plague is justification enough and doesn't delve into their characters. Still, I can't say the books is a complete failure. Brooks writes beautifully and even if I coudn't fully accept the madness or the women's mining adventure, I savored the pictures she painted of them in my mind. I would recommend this book if you're looking for quick-reading escapism with a bit of substance.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful.
    • 4/5
      I read this awhile ago so do not remember details but I know it was another good book from Geraldine Brooks. She did not dissapoint!
    • 4/5
      Interesting characters keep the story going strong all the way through.Unusual series of events at the books ending, only a few of which I saw coming.Strong, engaging tale.I'm just not sure of my feelings on the ending.
    • 5/5
      One of the best historical novels I've read, although I do have some quibbles with the ending. I loved People of the Book, also by Geraldine Brooks, but again I had some quibbles with her ending of that book. Fantastic details in both, and in particular with Year of Wonders, I learned a lot about a period of history I'd known nothing about previously. She really brought the period and the place -- not to mention the characters - alive.
    • 5/5
      ‘Year of Wonders’ is the fictionalized account of the village and denizens of Eyam, Derbyshire, England. The year is 1666 and a number of villagers have died of the Black Death. The community reluctantly decides to undergo a self-imposed quarantine and they restrict travel in and out of the village until the plague can run its course. A sympathetic neighbor delivers food and supplies to a preset location at the boundary of the village for those who survive. But the dead soon outnumber the living. The narrative follows the lives of some of the prominent villagers and the heart-wrenching struggles in which they find themselves entangled. Well written, with believable characters and emotional on many levels Brooks gives us an historical novel of great power and passion. Painstakingly researched to the most macabre details of death from the plague and life in the 17th century this book is not for the weak of heart but will make your heart weak by the suffering and sacrifice of every single member of the hamlet.This is what every great historical novel should strive to become; real, human and filled with life… even in death.
    • 4/5
      Finished! Now to discuss. I will say briefly that I enjoyed reading it, enjoyed the description, and found the story most intriguing and interesting.
    • 3/5
      Geraldine Brooks sets `Year of Wonders' in the `plague year' of the 1666 (a year which also featured the Great Fire in London). Although the plague recurred frequently in England throughout the 17th century, in this particular plague year a plague-infested village decides to seal themselves off from the rest of the world. Brooks discovered this real `Plague Village' of Eyam, Derbyshire on a walk around the English countryside and that discovery eventually led to this book. I was prepared to love this book; it's set in the fascinating 17th century and I find the plague and its impact on society, economy, and religion compelling. I can only give the book a modest recommendation because Brooks' story telling is toneless and few of her characters held the reader's interest . Brooks uses one of the plague survivors to tell the story retrospectively, but this narrator is remains emotionally distant. The elements of great story are here. Unimaginable loss and suffering, madness, hysterical searches for the plague's cause (witchcraft? God's disfavor? Nature?), heroism, sacrifice, avarice and the whole human array. At least for this reader, Brooks rarely connects in a way that makes the reader care about these poor people. The contrived and improbable epilogue mars what had otherwise been a strong ending. Others may appreciate Brooks' writing and find this book to be sublime, but this reviewer finds it merely subpar.
    • 4/5
      Don't remember much other than that I didn't want to read it and ended up loving it. Brooks is an author you can always recommend.
    • 4/5
      Plague hits a small village in 1666 England. Well written, and plenty of drama to keep the reader engaged. The only thing I didn't care for was the ending, which is why I rated it 4 stars instead of five.