Year of Wonders [Import] [Hardcover]

Geraldine BROOKS (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Four Estate (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841154571
• ISBN-13: 978-1841154572
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (422 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,733,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Geraldine Brooks is the author of People of the Book, March and Year of Wonders and the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Previously, Brooks was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, stationed in Bosnia, Somalia, and the Middle East. She lives in rural Virginia with her husband, author Tony Horowitz, and their son.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

200 of 214 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!, August 1, 2001

By 

"moonglow22" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (Hardcover)

When I was first given this book, I thought, "Oh great, a book about The Plague. How depressing." To be honest, if it had not been lent to me, i probably would not have even picked it up. But by the third page, I was hooked. Not only is the story, about a small English village that tries to control the spread of The Plague, brought in by a bolt of fabric, by quarantining themselves, it is the story of a remarkable woman, Anna Frith. Anna is a widow (her husband being killed before the Plague) who loses nearly everything-her children, her friends, her sanity-to this terrible disease. While The Plague ravages her friends and neighbors, Anna does everything she can to save them, and completes feats (midwifery, iron mining) that she never thought hersef capable of. The book is incredibly well written; Brooks uses the vernacular of the time to great effect, but in such a way that it seems completely normal. It sounds cliched, but I truly could not put this book down. A truly surprising delight; I recommend it for any fans of Anita Shreve (who gives an endorsement for the book.)

68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Study in Death, August 20, 2001

By 

Richard R. Peter (Elk Grove, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (Hardcover)

Based on an actual event and real persons, author Geraldine Brooks tells a fascinating tale of a village in rural 17th century England that experiences a sudden outbreak of plague. The citizens seal themselves off from the outside world to avoid spreading the disease to neighboring villages and to give themselves up to God's mercy. The "year of wonders" experienced by the residents of this stricken community is told through the eyes of an intelligent and couragous young widow, Anna Frith. Brooks' imagery is bright and alive - the reader experiences the sights and smells of this world, the hope and despair of the characters and the gradual disintegration of their faith. The plague brings out the noblest and the basest of human behavior and Anna herself achieves things she never would have attempted in any other circumstances.

Because the majority of this book was so well written, I was quite disappointed in the ending which seemed rushed and contrived, almost as if the publisher had grown impatient and directed Brooks to wrap it up by the end of the day. I won't spoil the ending, but readers of Albert Camus' novel on the same subject will groan inwardly at Brooks' little joke in her placement of the final scene.

Despite the ending, I recommend this book highly for its clear, concise style, vivid imagery, and realistic portrayal of human beings immersed in a long and tragic fight for survival and search for meaning.

123 of 132 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Evocative Historical Fiction Marred by Melodrama, September 11, 2001

By 

Rebecca Carpenter (Westminster, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (Hardcover)

There's a lot to like about Geraldine Brooks' _Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague_. At its best, this novel is an evocative, well-written historical fiction that skillfully conjures up the day-to-day hardships of living in a small village overrun by plague and watching two-thirds of your friends, family, and acquaintances die horrible deaths. I really liked the focus on the diurnal struggles of a village increasingly depleted of its human resources. What do you do when the women who always prepared herbal remedies are dead? When young children are left parentless? The main character, Anna Frith, is a strong woman and something of a feminist role model; the plague brings out resources in her that she didn't know she had.

Unfortunately, this novel is itself infected in places by melodrama and purple prose. There are a couple of minor eruptions early in the novel, but the big problem for this book resides in the last 30-40 pages. If the novel had ended on page 272, it would have been a much stronger novel. Regrettably, it continues until page 308. About five HUGE plot developments happen in this short space, which is startling enough in a novel that has been so well-paced up until this point, and several of them seem stretch credulity thin. There is also a surprisingly misogynistic passage from a previously likeable character in these final pages which really turned me off and seemed entirely inconsistent with everything we've learned about this character up until this point.

I would still recommend this novel, as it does so much so well, but with the caveat that its quality rather falls off in the end.