Year of Wonders

I was introduced to Brooks’ writing by a fellow journalist because I very much wanted to read a novel by a reporter turned fiction writer.

The writing and the plot of the 1666 plague in this book didn’t disappoint. It was like sinking into a time and place so different from my own, but at the same time so familiar because Brooks is what I call a surround-sound writer. She is able to totally immerse you in a foreign world.

Geraldine Brooks creates fascinating characters in a small English village in 1666 who must deal with a devastating plague. The village agrees to isolate itself to avoid spreading the plague to other communities.

The catastrophe hit at a time when modern medicine did not exist, nor did accessible communication. Superstition abounds in this time when witchcraft flourished in Europe. The characters are engaging, and their struggles with issues of faith are intriguing. It was a book I couldn't put down once I began reading.

Geraldine Brooks is one of my favorite authors, and Year of Wonders is one reason why.

Anna lives in an English village in 1666, and when the plague strikes the village, the inhabitants agree to stay in the village so that they will not spread the sickness to other areas. I found this part of the story truly touching, although the villagers at times turn on one another.

After the death of two women who were healers, Anna endeavors to learn what she can to nurse those stricken. When the plague has passed, Anna leaves the area and goes to… show more.

Voice is everything in this mesmerizing novel set in a small city during the plague. England 1666 is thick with suspicion, fear, and death. Widows, healers, and mothers of the dead are easy targets for religious zealots and outsiders, but one young widow—our narrator Anna—finds new ways to survive and thrive. Brooks trains her sights on age-old fearmongering to show how a community breeds suspicion and targets scapegoats in times of pestilence and mistrust. This is a novel that should be read now to remind us of the darkness that lies at the heart of fear and plagues.

A personal narrative set in a fearsome historical event is an unbeatable combination for any fiction lover. Anna Firth, a housemaid and an unlikely heroine narrates the course of sickness to inevitable death in 1666. Village religious leaders, resigned to sacrifice the village to end the Plague, self-quarantine the village. We see through Anna’s eyes the despair of giving care when superstition outweighs science. In such chaos, Anna struggles with the temptation of an illicit love. As the plague invades every household, her neighbors turn from prayer to superstition. Especially fascinating is Anna’s role changing from caregiver to suspected witch.… show more.

It’s almost twenty years since I read this book, but after living through the Covid Pandemic in New York City, I keep thinking about it. It couldn’t be more relevant, especially the part about isolating to protect others from a deadly disease. 

Year of Wonders is about a woman who confronts the beliefs and superstitions of her community, when she insists that the whole village isolate themselves to prevent the spread of the plague.

Before there was Covid-19, well before Hamnet, there was Geraldine Brooks's astonishing debut novel, based on historic accounts of an English village that quarantined itself in 1666 during the Black Plague. When Brooks, an accomplished journalist, couldn't find enough source material for a nonfiction book, she struck off into fictional territory--and (lucky us, her readers) has never looked back. I read the novel when I was asked to present her with an honorary award. She'd already written more novels and won a Pulitzer, but I went back and read this one first. It's told through the eyes of Anna,… show more.

When I first read this book, we hadn't lived through a plague ourselves, and I'm sure it would be even more pertinent for new readers today. I loved this book for what I learned about the history of the bubonic plague, and that my learning was so effortless, as I was completely captured by the book's heroine and the true story of the village of Eyam in Derybyshire. Having seen the fake news and false cures which have emerged during COVID 19, it is even easier than ever to believe the reliance on quack cures and religion, and the accusations… show more.