But it’s also a story of bravery, of care and love beyond what could possibly be expected, of pushing ourselves to the point of exhaustion in order to provide what others cannot. What follows is a tale of terror and exhaustion, one far too many of us know well after this past year, of death beyond measure, of people acting hysterically and abandoning their fellow man in his hour of need, of taking advantage of others’ fears and pain. Soon, as more people fall ill, rumors begin swirling that people are fleeing the bigger cities, trying to outrun this deadly disease, and the town’s minister helps the townspeople come to an agreement: they’ll seal off the town and remain within its borders in order to prevent the spread of disease to the towns and villages beyond. She takes in a boarder, a young male tailor, in order to supplement her meager income, and just as it seems as though the two of them might have a future together, he succumbs to a terrible illness. Cobbling together an existence from her flock of sheep and her work as a servant for one of the wealthier families in town and at the rectory, she finds joy in her sons but keeps mainly to herself.

Despite its heavy subject matter during these times, Year of Wonders is a beautifully written novel.Īnna Frith is a young widow, living in a small English village with her two young boys in 1666. Brooks’s People of the Book a few years ago, and I’m pleased to say that my enjoyment of her writing as a whole continues. I momentarily considered choosing another book- haven’t we had enough plague already?- because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it, but I decided to keep going, and I’m glad I did. I’d barely gotten into it before I realized the story was set in a small English town in 1666…during the time of the Bubonic plague. The book happened to be Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin Books, 2002). Who doesn’t love reading about a good plague? (Just open any news site, and…) I was waiting for my next interlibrary loan holds to arrive and grabbed a book off my own shelves, one that’s been sitting there for quite a while (as have most of them, sadly!).

Year of wonders novel