Year of Wonders
Year of Wonders is Geraldine Brooks's 2001 debut novel, based on the documented history of Eyam, a small Derbyshire mining village in the English Peak District. In late summer 1665, a journeyman tailor named George Viccars accepted a bolt of cloth from London. The bolt carried plague-bearing fleas. Within a week Viccars was dead, and within months a village of roughly three hundred and fifty people was watching the disease move from house to house. Inspired by their young Anglican rector William Mompesson and the dissenting Puritan minister he replaced, the villagers made an extraordinary decision: they would seal themselves inside the parish boundary rather than carry the plague to neighboring towns. Brooks tells the story through the voice of Anna Frith, a fictional housemaid whose own husband died in a mining accident shortly before the outbreak, and whose two small sons are among the early dead. The novel follows Anna across one entire plague year.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Year of Wonders
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In the late summer of 1665, the plague arrives in the small Derbyshire village of Eyam in a bolt of cloth from London.
Yes. Geraldine Brooks based the novel on the real plague village of Eyam, Derbyshire, which voluntarily quarantined itself in 1665 and 1666 to prevent further spread.
It deals with mass death, but the focus is on the resilience of those who choose to stay. The ending has been controversial among readers.
Year of Wonders is 310 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Year of Wonders takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Year of Wonders is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
Year of Wonders is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.