In a 2020 interview about the book with the American-Australia Association, Brooks explained the extensive research she conducted before attempting this turn to historical fiction, her first novel.Īsked about comparisons with today’s pandemic, she says: “The narrow lesson is the extent of leadership in that village by the young minister and his predecessor. Byatt's Posession, Year of Wonders blends learning and romance into an unforgettable read.Extant records indicating how a small village faced the bubonic plague, rather than a large city such as London, provide Brooks with material about 17th century English society, and the relation between the emergence of natural science and then current religious orthodoxy and superstition. Like Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha and A. As the death toll rises and people turn from prayers and herbal cures to sorcery and murderous witch-hunting, Anna emerges as an unlikely and courageous heroine in the village's desperate fight to save itself.Įxploring love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of science and religion to interpret the world at the cusp of the modern era, Year of Wonders is at once a story of unconventional love and a richly detailed evocation of a riveting moment in history.
The story is told through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Anna Frith, the vicar's maid, as she confronts the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love. A visionary young preacher convinces the villagers to seal themselves off in a deadly quarantine to prevent the spread of disease. In 1666, a tainted bolt of cloth from London carries bubonic infection to this isolated settlement of shepherds and lead miners.
This gripping historical novel is based on the true story of Eyam, the "Plague Village," in the rugged mountain spine of England.
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