Reviews

"Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks

Based upon the people and actual occurrences in the village of Eyam (Derbyshire, England) during an outbreak of the Plague, "Year of Wonders" is a testament of faith and endurance against all odds.

Although the concept sounds horrifyingly uninviting and overwhelmingly tragic, Ms. Brooks manages to create a story that is both captivating and inspiring.  Through the eyes of Anna Frith, a newly widowed mother of two struggling to support her family by working as a maid, the reader bears witness to a village beset by a contagion it neither understands nor is able to cure. 

As entire families are wiped out, sometimes in a matter of days, survivors look to their faith, their fears and their own humanity for the courage to go on.  Through an entire year, villagers do all they know to preserve their way of life and contain the spread of the deadly disease.  In an act of astounding courage, they choose to cut themselves off from surrounding villages in hopes of curbing the spread of Plague throughout the English countryside.  While contributing to the safety of others, this isolation is means certain death for many who choose to stay.

Despite her own losses, Anna plays a significant role in the village's survival.  Playing healer and counselor to Plague victims and birthing women alike, she calls upon a strength she never knew she had to face the insurmountable and rebuild her life.  Over the course of this year, Anna initially a painfully shy, cowering servant, emerges as a strong woman very much aware of her strength and personal power. 

"Year of Wonders" is moving, emotional story of unimaginable loss and rebirth.  Ms.  Brooks has taken a time of enormous fear and suffering and placed a very human face upon it.  This is the kind of book that stays with reader long after the final chapter.