Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

"Sample" is a waste of space

You get 15 pages to sample the book. After the copyright page, Table of Contents, exaustive pages of "reviews", you get a whoping 1 or 2 paragraphs of the story to read.

2 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

4 stars

Read this!

highly recommened - you must check it out

Extremely well written! Providing with yet another remarkable strongwilled woman role model during the bleak period of the plague

Good Read!

This was a great read once I got passed the beginning. (thus the 4 stars) This novel takes place during the time of the plague in the small town of Eyam, Derbyshire England between 1665 through 1666.The town rector has convinced the town to voluntarily quarantine. The story is told through the eyes of a servant - Anna Frith - who has more common sense than most and sees the plague as man versus nature not God's wrath. The tale weaves many different characters into the story and may give confusion to some but they are needed to tell the story. The ending may surprise many ( me included ) but I found it more rewarding than the usual fare. The story's beginnings are true but what happens in the town's quarantine is a work of fiction.

Highly recommended, definite great, flowing read!

Great, beatifully written novel. I've read it multiple times and each time I catch a new part of a beautiful decription of the time, the characters and the lives the people lived in such a difficult time. The story is actually particially taken from true happenings in England during that time. And, the author captured it amazingly.

Skip this one.

The description on the first few pages that had me hearing the apples rumble into a cart and feeling the ripe apples give underfoot led me to think this was going to be a great book about an English town beset by the plague. Instead it was just another story of a superwoman who taught herself to read, deliver babies and do a man's work in the mines. Don't even try to read Brooks' book, "Caleb's Crossing," which has an early American woman as the superhero who is much superior to the oafs around her.

I highly recommend that you read this one!

This was a great read with well developed characters. The author kept my interest and kept me reading. I had a hard time putting this one down. Ms. Brooks wove a lot of depth into the storyline. This is her second book for me and I look forward to the third.

Great read

I could not put this book down. Great reading,page turner,wish there were more books like this!

Highly recommend

Beatifully written with great insight into the best in us and the worst. I cannot wait to read more of her books.

Great book!

Loved this book! However, some parts were so heartbreaking, I had to put it down and come back to it later.

Couldn't put it down - twice!

Couldn't put it down while reading it the first time, and then immediately read it again to catch some of the more subtle details and character development I may have missed the first time.
Even though the ending seemed a bit rushed, after the detail of the majority of the book, definitely recommend it. Not your typical historical fiction - better.

Great reading

I found myself beinng transported back in time and place. I could smell the rotten appels and feel their mush under my feet. You will feel your heart go out to anna.. Glenda

that one

alrighty so this book is a a long book and words are cramped on the page. But i have to say this book is very inspiring and a truly great novel. But the only thing is when reading it dint rush and enjoy it ir yiu will get confused :)

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I appreciate an unexpected ending, but this ending was just disconnected.

For the most part the body of this work was fairly interesting and well written. While I appreciate an unexpected ending, this ending was just disconnected. Very disappointing.

A RARE LITERARY TREAT...

I was so captivated by this book from page one that I could hardly put it down. I finished it in 2 days. It's not often you come across such a beautifully written story. I couldn't help but compare Geraldine Brooks to famed author, Thomas Hardy, in her ability to create such beautiful imagery. I felt as though I had been transported back to 17th-century England. I could so vividly see and feel what Anna Frith and the villagers went through during that horrible year. Even though the story is dark, I did not come away from it feeling depressed. If anything, 'enlightened' about a part of history I knew very little about. If I had one complaint it would be with the ending. I would have kept Anna in England to find love and happiness once again, but I suppose that would have been too predictable. What can I say? I like fairy-tale endings. This ending didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it. I would even go so far as to say it's a 'must-read'. I look forward to any future books by this author, although it will be hard to exceed this book's beauty in my opinion.

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