“Highly recommended! A riveting, realistic, and emotionally intense novel about what it was like to live through an epidemic of the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) in 17th century England. Based on the true story of the villagers of Eyam, Derbyshire.
The odd and intriguing title is derived from a 1667 poem by John Dryden, titled "Annus Mirablis" ("Year of Wonders" in Latin) about the events of 1666, a year which was marked by a Black Death epidemic as well as the Great Fire of London.
The book came to be written because author Geraldine Brooks was haunted by a visit she had made to Eyam, a place she had discovered quite by accident. The village is known for having voluntarily placed itself under quarantine so as not to spread the plague to other areas. The courage and sacrifice of the people is extraordinary, as is their accurate perception of some of the ways in which the disease can be spread. This is commemorated today in a museum and in an exhibit at the parish church. Brooks says in an afterword that, "The account was so touching and terrible that it took root in my imagination . . . my thoughts often returned to Eyam, and I began to realize that it was this story, above all others, I longed to tell. What would it be like, I wondered, to make such a choice and to find that in consequence, two-thirds of your neighbors were dead within a year? How would faith, relationships, and social order survive?"
With a background like that, it is no wonder (pun intended!) that the resulting novel is extraordinary. Brooks includes scenes from "a wealth of anecdotes handed down over the years" from the real people who lived through the plague. These consist of such things as: the role of flea-ridden cloth as the possible plague vector; the greedy grave digger who buried a man alive; the prescient cockerel who knew when it was safe to come home.
The book is scientifically and historically accurate both in the fictional depiction of what was known and/or believed about the disease at the time (including some bizarre superstitions); and (in the Afterword) in terms of what is known about it today. For example, she implies in the story that the plague came to the village by way of contaminated fabric. There is evidence that this is the way that the plague bacterium was transmitted to Europe during the Middle Ages, from its origin in the Orient.
I like the approach taken by the author in fictionalizing the story. When she uses the real names of real people, she sticks to exactly what is actually known about them. When she adds fictionalized events and details of personality to characters that are based on real people, she changes the names slightly, so that it is clear both that the character is fictional, and who the real person was upon whom that particular character is based. In this way she is able to preserve historical accuracy while adding the fictional depth that makes the story come alive for the reader.
The ending of the book is rather odd. It appears that the author may have been at a loss as to how to conclude the story. This is understandable - after a tale about events so dramatic as the Plague, anything else would be anticlimactic. And how does an author say, "Then the plague ended and the survivors went on with their lives," in such a way as to make it interesting for the reader? Brooks gets sidetracked into a non-sequitur about the main character's subsequent life as one of the many wives of a Muslim MIddle-Eastern physician. This doesn't fit in with the rest of the book, but neither can it detract from the excellence of the rest of the book.
Don't miss the most interesting Afterword, in which Brooks tells how the book came to be written and gives some information about Bubonic Plague and the organism that causes it. For example, at one point, pet cats and dogs were believed to be carriers of the disease, and they were killed in large numbers in a desperate attempt to limit the spread of disease. But it actually had the opposite effect - by eliminating what were probably the most important predators of rats that live among human habitations, this would have encouraged the transmission of plague.
(308 pages)
"It was a voice full of light and dark. Light not only as it glimmers, but also as it glares. Dark not only as it brings cold and fear, but also as it gives rest and shade."
- Geraldine Brooks, in "Year of Wonders"
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