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    Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
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    Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
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    Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
    Audiobook10 hours

    Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

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    About this audiobook

    An unforgettable tale of a brave young woman during the plague in 17th century England from the author The Secret Chord and of March, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. 

    When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

    Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. Written with stunning emotional intelligence and introducing "an inspiring heroine" (The Wall Street Journal), Brooks blends love and learning, loss and renewal into a spellbinding and unforgettable read.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 5, 2010
    ISBN9781101223161
    Unavailable
    Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

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    Reviews for Year of Wonders

    4/5

    2,977 ratings225 reviews

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    • 4/5
      "If all who have the means run each time this disease appears, then the seeds of the Plague will go with them and be sown far and wide throughout the land until the clean places are infected and the contagion is magnified a thousandfold. If God saw fit to send this scourge, I believe it would be His will that one face it where one was, with courage, and thus contain its evil." Geraldine Brooks again picks a piece of history to weave together a story that both illuminates the time and speaks volumes about the human condition. I have read several of her novels and have enjoyed them all, perhaps March being my favorite. In this story, Ms. Brooks uses Anna Finch, a maid to the rector of the church, to narrate how the people in a small town in England,(this part true), were convince by their religious leader to quarantine themselves in an effort to not spread the Plague. Anna lives a simple, noble existence, married to a miner when her life takes a turn. He is killed in a collapse and as a widow, she takes on a lodger. He is a tailor who has traveled greatly and whose garments probably contain the fleas that bring the bubonic plague to the small village. Her story of working for the rector, forming a close friendship with his wife, Elinor, and her transformation over time make for fascinating reading, all wrapped in a tapestry of actual events. I Highly recommend and will continue to make sure I've read of this author's works
    • 4/5
      The author reads the story and her voice was a little strange but soothing. It's the story of the year in a life of a plague survivor in 17th century England. It's terribly sad, but also has its sweet moments. Anna's story ends fancifully, but she deserved nice things.
    • 1/5
      I don't expect historical fiction to be entirely without anachronisms. It is inevitable that the work must have a few of these to be relatable to the modern reader. This book, however, just has too many for me to enjoy. DNF at 12%.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      Anna Frith's life is already filled with despair when the English village in which she lives is infiltrated by the plague in 1666. We are escorted to the front lines of this torment and watch the suffering that doesn't escape any family. While the choice to quarantine themselves prevents the plague from spreading to surrounding cities, the death toll rises daily within the village. Ultimately, we see the best in some, the worst in others, and the pure ugliness in the plague.The historical aspects of the novel were fascinating. However, I didn't believe in Anna's character as a 17th century English woman or some of the other characters, which made it a bit difficult for me to fully appreciate the story line. And, the ending . . . well, I'll call it peculiar. It felt like Brooks pulled a scenario out of a hat, tacked it on the end, and called it a day. Odd, very odd. (3.25/5)Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..."
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written, but I found the ending disappointing. Maybe that's more my problem than Geraldine Brooks'!
    • 4/5
      Why do authors have to spoil books with disappointing endings? I was captivated by this book as Brooks brought to life the events of a village during the plague year of 1665. Her descriptions of the disease, the death of the villagers, the heroic decision to isolate the village so that the plague stayed contained and the daily struggle to remain alive were fascinating. Full of courage, hope, despair, the sense of community, love and fear, this book had me enthralled. Then the ending came!!! Couldn't the story have finished with Anna riding away from her village with the babe instead of the far-fetched epilogue that was tacked on? I felt robbed! The ending is the only reason why I didn't give "Year of Wonders" five stars.
    • 4/5
      Young Anna Frith narrates events in her small English village in the years of 1665-1666 when they are visited by plague.Black Death was a major scourge when there were huge advances happening in science and Reformation in religion, yet few really understood exactly how it was transmitted or what caused it. Basing her story on the true English village of Eyam, Geraldine Brooks explores how people react in crisis situations, the extremes of self-sacrifice or in turning on another. Was the plague really sent by God as a call to repentance? What role does faith have when the world is falling apart - and what if this isn't sent by God after all? This was gripping, intense reading, and my only real complaint was that Anna seemed just a bit to modern to be believable and the end, while it made sense for the character in one way, stretched credulity in my mind.
    • 4/5
      Very good book. Historically accurate. Nova did an interesting program about the town of Eyam and it's survivors.
    • 4/5
      Anna Frith is a young widow with two young children to raise, in a little village in Derbyshire, England, as the year of 1665 draws to an end. She is quiet, unassuming, and not inclined to make waves. She takes in a lodger sent to her by the local rector, to help make ends meet now that her husband's income from the mine is gone.

      The lodger is a tailor, and he receives a deliver of cloth from London. Quite innocently, with that cloth, he has brought bubonic plague into the village. Over the next year, she faces previously unimaginable challenges, as her neighbors and friends die, and she needs to become a healer and leader among those not yet sick.

      This novel is based on the events in the village of Eyam in 1666, where the local ministers responded to the arrival of plague by closing the village--no one in or out until the plague there has run its course--in exchange for supplies delivered to their boundary stone regularly by the neighboring villages. It was an extraordinary action, undertaken few other places in Europe, and in this novel Brooks imagines the experiences of the village through the eyes of the rector's maid. It's a wonderful evocation of courage and fear, community and division, and the weakness and strength mingled in varying degrees in every individual. Anna has to step forward and become the village midwife and herb woman, after the previous one is killed for being a witch. She's no perfect model of virtue; fear, jealousy, and resentment motivate some of her actions. But so do courage, generosity, and the belief that more people will die if the village gives way to division and fear.

      In the midst of this annus horribilis, she finds joy, friendship, and confidence, as well, a year of wonders.

      It's an incredibly engrossing and rewarding story, and I'm not doing it justice. Highly recommended.

      I bought this audiobook.
    • 4/5
      The romantic in me did not care for the end, though the feminist in me loved it. The two aren't mutually exclusive, are they?
    • 3/5
      Well, at least you get a book about the plague's devastation on a town that's not overwhelmingly depressing and grievous. Can't really tell I felt much of anything. The last chapter and epilogue seems a little contrived. Not too bad a read overall, but not especially memorable.
    • 5/5
      Taking a small village and a single caring woman as her subject, Brooks' "novel of the plague" is not just powerful and elegantly written, but as complete as I can imagine a novel about the plague being. With every emotion at play, and an eerie level of truth touching near on every scene, Brooks has recreated a self-quarantined village and brought it to life.Although it won't be for every reader, owing simply to its subject and the darkness of some of the passages, this is a book worth reading, and I'd absolutely recommend it.
    • 5/5
      Excellent.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful.
    • 5/5
      what a great read!
    • 5/5
      Evocative. Empathic. Unputdownable.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant!
    • 3/5
      I must agree with several other reviewers who were unhappy with the final few chapters of this book. She pretty much went off the rails. I won't say that what happened toward the end was out of character, but the way it all went down felt forced and bizarre and part of a different story.Don't let that stop you from reading it though! It's a lushly descriptive novel of complex people in a complex time. People who did their best and who did their worst. If you like Geraldine Brooks's writing, I think you will like this novel. The weird ending is not going to put me off from reading her future books. I've read most of her others and my favorite of hers still remains "People of the Book."
    • 4/5
      Compelling storytelling, with wonderfully well-developed characters and a terrific sense of place.
    • 3/5
      I read this book for the RTT group. Anna Firth resides in a remote village outside of London when a bolt of imported cloth brings the plague. Though the "vision" of the town's minister they quarantine themselves. Anna loses both of her children. After the quarantine is over, for various reasons, Anna moves away from the village. The ending was like it belonged in a separate book--very disjointed and improbable in the this story line. I half-read/half-listened to this book and the Audible was just horrendous! 3 stars. I would have given it more except for that last chapter.....
    • 4/5
      3.5 stars. This book is based on an actual village in England that sequestered itself when the plague arrived in 1666. In the end, they think about 2/3 of the people in the village did not survive. Some of the characters were based on real people. Brooks makes a story out of how the people dealt with the illness and isolation. For me, it took a while to get into the book. She started off after the plague had already come and gone and went back and forth in time a couple of times before going back to start before the plague came to the town. Once she went back and got into the main part of the story - when the plague arrived - I found it much more interesting.
    • 3/5
      3 1/2 stars

      A highly readable story marred by what felt like the author playing an insane game of "what if" at the end.
    • 3/5
      This is interesting because it gives a women's perspective (who is pretty poor, in a tiny village in the north of England) during the plague years (so the mid-1600s) but the end destroys the book. The ending is completely unrealistic because she has the heroine go to an Arab country and be a fifth wife, but the husband isn't interested in sleeping with her because he's 70+ and she has two little girls to raise and it is just silly. Up until the last few chapters, though, it is really good.
    • 5/5
      I think that Geraldine Brooks is just about one of the very best authors today. It is incredible to read a book about the Plague, and yet, inspire of all the horror and death, the heroine comes off as really strong, and characters are great. I couldn't stop reading it. When I started it I started warily, but somehow she manages to give it hope in the midst of unbelievable tragedy and death.
    • 4/5
      Story of a small town in England during the 1665-1666 plague outbreak. The main character Anna was sympathetic and likable. The story was hard to read at times because of the death and destruction of the plague. The writing flowed nicely and the story engaging.
    • 3/5
      This is the second book of historical fiction by Geraldine Brooks that I have read. Brooks is an excellent writer as far as words go, but she makes some odd choices in storytelling. I noticed this a bit when I read her novel "March" and it is much more evident here. For most of this book I really liked it and was somewhat immersed in the world of 350 years ago, 1665-1666. Brooks uses bits of old language and expressions and archaic words for things to continually remind the reader that we are in the 17th century - not the 20th or 21st. Brooks paints us a picture in words of life during the black plague in a small village near London. This is based on a true story of a village, people who chose to isolate themselves rather than risk further spreading this horrible epidemic. Since very little actual documentation of events exists in writing, the author has a free hand in putting her imagination to use in constructing the story. The story thus is primarily fictional, although it uses some interpretations of real people. It is a first person narrative told by Anna, who has two small children and was recently widowed when her husband died in a lead mine collapse shortly before the arrival of Plague to the village. She is a maid for the Rector and his wife Elinor, the two other main characters. We see the good and the bad as members of the community die horrible deaths over the course of a year, not all because of the disease, and madness takes hold of others in various forms. Once in a while a couple of the main characters seem a little too modern to me for 1665, which does happen with historical fiction. The story took a few odd turns somewhere towards the middle that I didn't care for, and this prefaced a change in the focus of the story. The deaths from the Plague continue but the story is increasingly a series of scenes that are primarily people doing bad things to each other. It seemed bent on destroying the image we the reader had built up about about a couple good characters, the Rector especially. The book more or less "jumped the shark" towards the end. My initial impression of the later part of the story was quite poor. Upon thinking on it for a while I make myself recognize that this was the author's story - not mine.
    • 4/5
      This is a physically thin book, but don't let that deceive you. This is one of the heaviest reads emotionally I have ever experienced. Even when I thought a spark of light was coming, it was snuffed out. And yet (or perhaps, because of) this, Year of Wonders is one of the most beautifully written books I've read in quite a while.Brooks spins the story of a village besieged by The Plague, who have willingly chosen to quarantine themselves rather than risk spreading the disease to other villages and towns. Our narrator, and heroine, is Anna Firth, a housemaid who suffers terrible losses but, among the tragedy, finds her strength.I highly recommend this book--it's an incredible read, that will absolutely make you feel and make you think.
    • 4/5
      Compared to how I've been striking out with Geraldine Brooks novels for a while, this one was a nice reminder of why I like this author. Year of Wonders chronicles life in an English village during the plague of the 1660s, and manages to vividly capture daily life as few works of fiction do. An excellent book and highly recommended for fans of historical fiction.
    • 3/5
      Another audiobook.. think it made the telling better. I am still not understanding M Mompellion and what he reveals at the end -- though it is a good read.