Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague - Geraldine Brooks

Written by Geraldine Brooks
Read by Geraldine Brooks
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Release date: July 15, 2010
Duration: 10:06:57

When the plague visits an isolated village in the English countryside, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna’s eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers endure a self-imposed quarantine to keep the disease from spreading. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a “year of wonders.”

Inspired by the true story of the village of Eyam a remote British village commemorated as Plague Village because of the events that transpired there in 1665–1666. Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. With stunning emotional intelligence, Brooks blends love and learning, loss and renewal, into a spellbinding and unforgettable read.

With the facility of a prose artist, Brooks unflinchingly describes barbaric 17th-century customs and depicts the fabric of life in a poor rural area. If Anna’s existential questions about the role of religion and ethical behavior in a world governed by nature seem a bit too sophisticated for her time, Brooks keeps readers glued through starkly dramatic episodes and a haunting story of flawed, despairing human beings. This poignant and powerful account carries the pulsing beat of a sensitive imagination and the challenge of moral complexity.