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Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks


Janet

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Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

 

The ‘Blurb’

Spring 1666: when the Great Plague reaches the quiet Derbyshire village of Eyam, the villagers make an extraordinary decision. They elect to isolate themselves in a fateful quarantine. So begins the Year of Wonders, seen through eighteen-year-old Anna Frith’s eyes as she confronts the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love. Based on a true story, this novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggles of seventeenth-century science and religion to interpret the world at the cusp of the modern era.

 

I read a review about this a few years ago and loved the sound of it. I’d forgotten all about it though until I found it in a charity shop recently. What a fabulous book!

 

Based on a true story, it tells how the plague is brought to the small village of Eyam in some flea ridden cloth sent from London to a journeyman tailor lodging with Anna. The villagers take the decision to quarantine themselves, leaving money and requests for goods on the village boundary stone and in return people from the next village leave the items for them to collect, ensuring that they are able to survive without contact with the outside world.

I say survive, but in reality about 75% of the village inhabitants were victims of this horrific, painful death.

 

 

The book is so well written that it’s easy to lose yourself in it. I would love to visit Eyam, which I know has a good museum dedicated to this remarkable incident.

 

The paperback is 304 pages long and is published by Fourth Estate. The ISBN number is 978-1841154589.

 

10/10

 

(Read July 2008)

Edited by Janet
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Thanks guys. :)

 

I keep hearing about this one on different forums. Some readers are not at all happy with the ending although everyone seems to like the journey towards it. It's on my TBR

I read that some people didn't like the ending after I'd finished the book.

 

I'm glad I didn't read that before. Personally I thought it rounded it off quite nicely! :D

Edited by Janet
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  • 1 month later...

I'm currently reading AYOW and am on only page 40, but am really enjoying the story so far. The first person POV is particularly interesting as Anna's thoughts provide such a direct and detailed look at her life in the village and its limitations at this point of the story, as well as her view of what other characters can do or possess that she may not fully attain. I'm looking forward to discovering more about Anna and what she'll do as I continue.

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I read it a couple of years ago and enjoyed it (although I have to say I can't now remember the ending and whether I thought it was good or bad)

 

Was very frustrating knowing what we know now about the plague, and how they could have prevented the spread, but I thought it very well written

Edited by Smint
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