Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

I now have a new author I am in awe of. Geraldine Brooks handles historical fiction with skilled hands and compelling prose. Having first read her novel Horse, which I was unable to put down, and then March, which was such an incredible Civil War story from such an interesting perspective, I just finished Year of Wonder, a novel of the plague which had such spectacular character development and surprising insight into the human spirits’ ability to cope with extreme loss and tragedy, that I’m already to begin another of her books.

Inspired by the true story of the village of Eyam, Derbyshire, Year of Wonders is a historical fiction novel about an English village that decides to quarantine itself after a bolt of infected cloth from London begins spreading the bubonic plague among the villagers in 1666. As well as being an immersive tour through a specific period of history, Year of Wonders is also deeply concerned with matters of faith, superstition, and religion. The book is told through the eyes of Anna Frith, a housemaid who forms a deep friendship the village's minister and his wife. As the death toll mounts and the villagers turn to pagan superstition, Anna must reckon with the harsh reality that God has turned his back on their village. Alongside Shusako Endo's Silence, I think Year of Wonders might be one of the best novels about God's absence in the midst of extreme suffering. Year of Wonders really slaps you in the face with the reality that a lot of what we consider "blessings" and "things working out" is really a result of modern convenience. We really have nothing to compare to the horrors a real-life plague in the Middle Ages — Year of Wonders is an increasingly grim and unrelenting novel, and it doesn't shy away from the randomness of death, the horrors of childbirth, and a fascinatingly supernatural worldview. I appreciate author Geraldine Brooks handling of faith in Year of Wonders – a lot of historical fiction will simply give lip service to the "idea" and "customs" of faith, despite the fact that people in the past were way more religious and enmeshed in the liturgical calendar than modern society. Also, refreshingly, Year of Wonders isn't very interested in transposing 21st-century cultural norms into a 17th-century context — this is down and dirty history that doesn't pull any punches in depicting how hard life was (especially if you were a woman). This is my first novel by Geraldine Brooks, and she's an incredibly accomplished writer of historical fiction — accolades include a Pulitzer Prize in Literature — so the writing is top-notched and the research impeccable. In short, Year of Wonders is the best type of historical fiction — it transports you to a slice of history in such a way that it really drives home the truism that the "past is a foreign country."

I have become a more recent devotee of the work of Geraldine Brooks, this being the second volume of hers which I have read. While as an historian I have never put much stock in the historical fiction genre, Ms. Brooks has turned my head on this subject. The work of Brooks is well researched and are written as in the grammar and tone of their ages. The characters are incredibly thought out and depicted and the story lines are both plausible and compelling. I look forward to reading my next work by Ms. Brooks and encourage anyone with a bent for historical works to give these books a try.

This story follows the tale of an English handmaiden named Anna Firth during the year of the plague, 1666. The plague seed arrives to her secluded village via bolts of cloth sent from London. As the residents begin to fall ill and die, one after the other, those that remain alive make the vow to remain in the village, because to flee would only spread the disease further. This is a historical novel but it's not a dry, boring read. It's based on the true account of an English village that did impose a self-inflicted quarantine, but much has been invented to make for a more readable story. Undeniably, Anna is made into a heroine as she goes to the rescue of her fellow villagers, delivering babies, tending to the sick, helping those that cannot help themselves. But Anna is also made human by a few rare emotional choices she makes. After losing her husband in an accident and losing the prospect of new love with another man, quiet Anna feels a sudden surge of jealousy at the love between the village rector and his wife. That they should have each other and she should be alone is too unfair; so she smashes every single dish she had close at hand. That was in 1666, but by today's standards, I would imagine this to be akin to pushing a car off a cliff just to watch it be destroyed. Her loss of control was a small passage in the book, merely a paragraph, but it brings Anna down from the saintly, iconic picture that she has been painted into throughout the whole story. I've heard people say that they didn't enjoy the ending of this book. They thought the ending was too abrupt or a `cop out'. Yes, the book wrapped up quickly, but it wasn't "...and then she woke up. The End." This book was following Anna and it went where she went. It could have continued on, covering the aftermath of the plague and all that entails, but then the book would have been 10 volumes long. I call this book "Lite Historic Reading". If you want something more substantial, pick up Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose or Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost. Both are extremely long, erudite, satisfying works of fiction that one could write their Master's thesis on. The Year of Wonders is a good book to read during a rainy weekend.

I have had this book on my TBR list for a couple of years. I have read several of Geraldine Brooks’s other books and had not realised that this was her first novel. Her writing is fantastic and she is a great storyteller. I was inspired to read this book now, as someone at work has started an “iso” book group, and this was the chosen book. For anyone who reads this review in the future, this is because we are in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic and have all been socially isolated and working from home. This book is appropriate then as it deals with the plague epidemic of 1665-6 in the UK, and specifically the plague village of Eyam in Derbyshire. This village was stricken by bubonic plague, and took the unusual step of cutting itself off from the rest of the world to stop the spread of the disease. The villagers themselves suffered greatly, and many died. We now know a great deal about this disease and how it is spread, but that was not the case in the 17th century. The story is told by Anna, who is a survivor- not only of the plague, but of other tragedies in her life. Her husband Sam is killed in an accident in his lead mine, a common occurrence in those days. She becomes great friends with the minister’s wife, Elinor, who teaches her to read. Anna has a very hard life but ends up happy and fulfilled, albeit far away from Derbyshire. This is a story of love and loss and triumph over the odds. It is also historically interesting, being based on a true story. I found that much of it resonated strongly with our own situation in the current pandemic and it almost could have been written last week, not in 2011. Highly recommended, especially for lovers of Geraldine Brooks’s work.

What a fantastic book. It is quite a hard read at times, and really beautifully written, all the characters are well developed and believable. Human stories. Loved it, and could hardly wait until I could pick it up again. Spoiler alert - what a great ending too. I love an author who ties it all up and doesn't leave the reader wondering "...what next?"

１７世紀後半のイギリスの小村。無学で貧しい父と継母に育てられたアンは、夫を事故で失い、村の牧師夫妻の召使として二人の子供と暮らしていたが、そこにペストが流行する。次々と村人が死んでいく事態に、牧師は外部に病気が広がらないように村を閉鎖する。死の恐怖に直面した人々は魔女として無実の女性を殺すなど、迷信に走ったり酒びたりになったりする。アンも子供を失うが、その中で自分のとるべき行動を見出していく。たまたま同じようにペストを背景に展開し、ストーリー性が面白かったKen Follett のWorld Without Endを直前に読んでいたが、こちらは牧師の妻のエリノアにも助けられて内面成長をしていくアンが丁寧に描かれていて、終わりまで一気に読んだ。ペストの話は史実に基づいているそうだが、終わりがやや強引で、作者が自分の経験を無理やりに入れ込んだ印象があったので星を一つ下げた。

The Year or Wonders, what Dryden called Annus Mirabilis though in the backdrop of the traumatic civil war, here Brooks beautifully captures the year, the 1665 - the year when nearly 5000 people were dying in a week - the year of the Black Death. The Plague and the Great Fire of London erased one third of London's population in two successive years. Brooks in her novel portrays the role of women, and the ways to survive amidst the pandemic. This is a magnificent novel. However, I got a book with yellowed pages with pencil markings, which I do not like anyhow. Keep reading. Keep engage in getting the orgasmes of the pleasures of reading a text.

One of my top 10. I love history and the time of the plague fascinates me. Thanks to this book I learned about plague holes where people from surrounding plague infected villages would leave supplies for victims to keep them alive, but their illness contained to avoid spread. The fictional story had my emotions spinning in circles, what an ending to a fabulous book!