Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
Geraldine Brooks
Language: English
Pages: 308
ISBN: 0142001430
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
An unforgettable tale of a brave young woman during the plague in 17th century England from the author The Secret Chord and of March, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, 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 confront the spread of disease and superstition. 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 Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. Written with stunning emotional intelligence and introducing "an inspiring heroine" (The Wall Street Journal), Brooks blends love and learning, loss and renewal into a spellbinding and unforgettable read.
The Christine Brooke-Rose Omnibus: Four Novels: Out, Such, Between, Thru
Into the silence that greeted Mr. Mompellion’s speech. “Well, sir, very bravely stated. But I must tell you that those who know this disease best—and that would be the physicians and the barber-surgeons-have been the fleetest of foot in leaving town. One cannot get cupped for a cough or bled for the gout, no matter if you have a sovereign to give in fee. Which leads me to conclude that the physicians have written us a clear prescription, and that is this: the best physick against the Plague is to.
Wife, it seems, is expert at making poor choices. She certainly has had some practice.” The insult was so broad that I had to swallow a gasp. Mompellion’s fists clenched, but he managed to maintain his level tone. “You may be right. But equally do I believe that the choice you make today is wrong, terribly wrong. If you do this thing, your family’s name will be a hissing in the laneways and the cottages. The people will not forgive you for abandoning them.” “And you think I care for the opinion.
Plague was neither of God nor the Devil, but simply a thing in Nature, as the stone on which we stub a toe. I walked on, nursing my injured hand and probing my heart on these matters. Did I really believe that God put the rock in my path to trip me? Some would say certainly: the finger of God places every speck of dust. I did not see it so. Yet I would have inclined to believe God’s hand at work if, as a result of the rock, I’d struck my head and lay now fatally injured. So where, exactly, in.
Its narrative, it confirms in compelling terms the universal vulnerability of humankind, and the wonder of survival.” —Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s List and The Great Shame: The Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World PENGUIN BOOKS YEAR OF WONDERS Geraldine Brooks is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 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.
Off in a smooth surge. He leapt the wall as neatly as a cat. I barely felt the landing. I turned his head for the moors and we galloped. The wind rushed by, blowing off my cap and freeing my hair so that it blew out like a banner behind me. The big hooves beat the ground as the blood throbbed in my head. We live, we live, we live, said the hoofbeats, and the drumming of my pulse answered them. I was alive, and I was young, and I would go on until I found some reason for it. As I rode that.