Year of Wonders in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jan 09, 2019 BookishStitcher rated it really liked it

First finished book of the year... 9 days in. Much different than last year where I had finished almost 7 books by now.

Year of Wonders is a fictional take on actual events that took place in 1666 where a tiny English village came down with the plague and decided to sequester itself off from the world to avoid spreading it to surrounding villages. Lots of interesting characters and information on historical practices. It's told from the perspective of the maid to the rector of the village. ...more

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May 08, 2013 Chaitra rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, literary-fiction, disaster, based-on-true-events

I wasn't sure I'd like this. I'm not fond of the Geraldine Brooks books that I've read, including the Pulitzer Prize winner, March. When I saw the reviews for this book lamenting the weird ending, I was even more certain I wouldn't care for it. Perhaps these made my expectations so low that the book succeeded in more than meeting them.

So, Anna Frith has a lodger who sends for a bolt of cloth that turns out to be infected. He comes down with an illness Anna and her employers suspect is Plague, bu ...more

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Nov 07, 2013 Plethora rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: century-21st, fiction, yr-2013-reads, historical-fiction, library, zborn-australia, dws_outpost, title-3a_s

Historical fiction telling of the true story of Eyam, the Plague Village, set in the rugged mountains of England in 1666. The story follows Anna Frith from the outbreak of the plague to the end of the contagion spreading. For eighteen months the plague infected the small village and severely altered daily life. How do you fight something you have no knowledge and understanding of? Why do some die and others not catch it, even if they held the infected? How do you fight the fear of what might be ...more

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Oct 03, 2021 Linda C rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, european, religious

The year of the title is the year of 1666 when the Plague came to Anna Frith's mountain village in England. Anna is widowed at 18 with a toddler and a baby. She works for the Reverend Michael Mompellion and his wife Elinor. The story follows them and the villagers during that time as seen by Anna. A proposal by the Reverend to shut themselves off until the disease is spent (no one in, no one out) is based on a true village happening at that time. We see how they deal and suffer and the great cha ...more

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Jul 09, 2019 Jaret rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-5-star-books

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.

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