“Given two recent threats of deadly pandemics in the form of the SARS virus and the present H1 N1 virus, perhaps this realistic story of an English village and it’s courageous attempt to stop the plague from spreading rings especially true.. England was struck by a plague outbreak in 1665-66. Particularly hard hit during the epidemic was the Derbyshire village of Eyam, whose story is told here. The plague traveled to Eyam in a bundle of cloth. The unfortunate recipient, a tailor, becomes the first to die in an epidemic that leaves the village shrunk to one-third of its former population. What makes the tale of Eyam remarkable is that the citizens, led by their pastor, agreed to impose a quarantine on themselves in order to stop the plague from spreading. The usual response to news of plague in early modern Europe was flight, for there was no cure and death was almost certain. Brooks tells the story of Eyam's heroic battle from the perspective of young Anna Frith, servant to the pastor and his wife. Widowed before the epidemic, Anna is the mother of two small children and landlady to the unfortunate tailor. She nurses her friends and family to little avail during the horrors of the plague year, but her spirit remains unbroken. Like Eyam itself, Anna prevails and lives to see another day.
Compiled from various reviews by K. Craver 10/2009”
NCSLibrary wrote this review Thursday, October 8 2009.
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