Year of Wonders in Aussie Readers

Oct 23, 2012 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: library-bookclub-reads, aussie-authors

The year was 1666. The place was Eyam in Derbyshire, England. Anna Frith was housemaid to the rector Michael Mompellion and his wife Elinor. Anna was married to Sam Frith, and had two wonderful boys, Jamie and Tom. When Sam was killed in a mining accident, Anna had to take in a boarder to make ends meet. So when the charming and polite George Viccars, a tailor, entered their lives he brightened everything around him…the children loved him, as he spent time playing with Jamie, and had him laughin ...more

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Dec 08, 2009 Laura rated it really liked it

The Great Plague of 1665 devastated a small village in Derbyshire known as Eyam; Based part on actual events, Brooks takes us back in time, describing everyday life in Eyam; the various families, culture, mining, superstitions, midwifery and religious belief in order to develop her story and the depth of it’s characters.

Anna Frith is the narrator of the story, a widow who lost her husband to a mining accident, left to raise her two small sons alone. After taking in a stranger who comes to the v The Great Plague of 1665 devastated a small village in Derbyshire known as Eyam; Based part on actual events, Brooks takes us back in time, describing everyday life in Eyam; the various families, culture, mining, superstitions, midwifery and religious belief in order to develop her story and the depth of it’s characters.

Anna Frith is the narrator of the story, a widow who lost her husband to a mining accident, left to raise her two small sons alone. After taking in a stranger who comes to the village in need of lodging, Anna finds herself falling in love with the stranger who dotes on her children like his own; on his death bed he instructs Anna to “burn it all”. Highlighting the ignorance of the medical world during the 17th Century, the village is unaware that they are on the verge of a pandemic; The Black Death. The disease runs rife throughout the village, killing young and old, healthy and sick in the hundreds. After loosing her two young children to the plague, Anna plunges her heart and soul into working with the local rector and his wife to aid the sick picking up where the local herbalist/midwife left off. Elinor, the rector’s wife, encourages Anna to read anything she chooses to from their library, both firmly believe that the ‘answer to their problems’ lay in one of the Latinised medical texts.

After Anna’s confidant, Elinor, is murdered by her frenzied step mother, on a spur of the moment decision Anna finds comfort in the arms of the rector. Seeing her own mistakes and deciding that although she is fond of the rector acknowledges that she can not live in the footsteps of Elinor and is devastated to learn that the rector’s marriage was more convenience than out of love, Anna feeling betrayed on behalf of her friend. Anna learns to trust her own intuition, and by a chance turn of events, flees Eyam to start her life over with a bastard child she saved from drowning; fearing the family who attempted to kill the child will change their mind and pursue her, by chance she boards a ship bound for the Mediterranean, upon arrival seeks out and joins an Arabian man who herald’s Anna’s intelligence and joins his harem in order for his protection lives in harmony with her two daughters.

This is a beautifully written story vividly describing The Great Plague of 1665; anyone who is mildly interested in everyday life during the 17th Century, the plague and it’s consequences, will thoroughly enjoy reading this novel.
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Feb 18, 2013 Kathryn rated it liked it

Shelves: australian-authors, fiction

I loved this until about just over 30 pages from the end. At first I was slightly disappointed by something that seemed out of character and then I was completely flabbergasted by a revelation that was so totally out of character that it made me feel like I had just entered the twilight zone with the book!! Or maybe the author felt like she'd written herself into a corner and she couldn't see anyway out other than the one she took - but it was so unbelievable that it was almost as if the wrong p ...more

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May 07, 2011 Jacinta Hoare rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie-author, 2011

The year 1666 in England was a tumultuous year with a chain of disasters falling on the population. The Plague was a terrifying event that decimated entire villages. Anna Frith is a young widow struggling to provide for her two young sons when the Plague breaks out in her village. This book traces Anna's experiences in the following year as she plays a central role in the physical and pastoral care of her neighbors and friends.

I enjoyed reading this book, it has lots of lovely twists and turns a ...more

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Apr 02, 2014 Ace Taylor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, real-life, relationship, historical, talking-books, european-history, religion, englands-history, books-i-own

That sucked me in so much and it was amazing. Of course Geraldine who was reading the talking book - her voice was amazing and just drew me in to it so much that I once forgot to pay attention to where I was driving! (Ended up in a turning lane because it turned from one into two and I went WHERE AM I - I was on the right road but you know...) Absolutely amazing.

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