Year of Wonders

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
by Geraldine Brooks
Blackstone Audio, 2010. 308 pgs/10 hours. Historical Fiction

Anna Frith narrates the tumultuous events of the year 1666, when the plague arrived in her small village of Eyam in cloth sent from London. The local minister encourages the villagers to take the radical step of sealing themselves off from the rest of the world in order to prevent the disease from infecting others, an act that has both good and evil consequences for everyone.

I listened to an audio version of this book read by the author, and I really liked the narration. Her voice is just perfect as Anna’s, adding the right inflection and tone to the words. However, I found this to be a harder book to listen to than it was to read simply because the content is very difficult. Brooks has done meticulous research into the realities of country life in the 17th century and the horrific symptoms of plague (not to mention the horrible things that desperate people do to each other). This book is beautifully written but not for the faint of heart.

JC