Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Viking Adult
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2001-08
Publisher: Viking Adult
Sales Rank: 196653
Studio: Viking Adult

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a 'year of wonders.'

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. Written with stunning emotional intelligence and introducing 'an inspiring heroine' (The Wall Street Journal), Brooks blends love and learning, loss and renewal into a spellbinding and unforgettable read.

'The novel glitters . . . A deep imaginative engagement with how people are changed by catastrophe.' (The New Yorker)

'Year of Wonders is a vividly imagined and strangely consoling tale of hope in a time of despair.' (O, The Oprah Magazine)

'Brooks proves a gifted storyteller as she subtly reveals how ignorance, hatred and mistrust can be as deadly as any virus. . . . Year of Wonders is itself a wonder.' (People )

Amazon.com Review:
Geraldine Brooks's Year of Wonders describes the 17th-century plague that is carried from London to a small Derbyshire village by an itinerant tailor. As villagers begin, one by one, to die, the rest face a choice: do they flee their village in hope of outrunning the plague or do they stay? The lord of the manor and his family pack up and leave. The rector, Michael Mompellion, argues forcefully that the villagers should stay put, isolate themselves from neighboring towns and villages, and prevent the contagion from spreading. His oratory wins the day and the village turns in on itself. Cocooned from the outside world and ravaged by the disease, its inhabitants struggle to retain their humanity in the face of the disaster. The narrator, the young widow Anna Frith, is one of the few who succeeds. With Mompellion and his wife, Elinor, she tends to the dying and battles to prevent her fellow villagers from descending into drink, violence, and superstition. All is complicated by the intense, inexpressible feelings she develops for both the rector and his wife. Year of Wonders sometimes seems anachronistic as historical fiction; Anna and Mompellion occasionally appear to be modern sensibilities unaccountably transferred to 17th-century Derbyshire. However, there is no mistaking the power of Brooks's imagination or the skill with which she constructs her story of ordinary people struggling to cope with extraordinary circumstances. --Nick Rennison, Amazon.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Great read!
This is wonderful read, both from the perspective of the insights into the way of life at the time ... Read More

Rating:

- Book missing pages
Emailed book vendor BUT NEVER RECEIVED A RESPONSE. Pages 1-34 were missing from Years of Wonder and ... Read More

Rating:

- I'm Loving This Author
After reading March, I had to immediately read this novel by the same author. It's the story about the ... Read More

Rating:

- Unexpectedly, A Great Read
A story about the plague that is set in England in the 1600's isn't one that I would have likely read had ... Read More

Rating:

- Beautifully Written, But Strange Ending
This is a beautifully written book with elegant prose. The author handles the gory details of plague accurately ... Read More

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Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague