Plot Summary Of Year Of Wonders By Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks won a prize for her novel Year of Wonders. The novel is based on the true story about a village that was in England during the plague of the 17th century. The residents of Eyam were also called the Plague Village. They sacrificed their own lives. The villagers quarantined this village in order to prevent it from spreading to other parts of the country. The book begins in the fall 1666. It does not begin at the beginning, but rather near the end.

Michael Mompellion was appointed as the village’s rector. Elinor, his wife, has just died. Michael, Elinor Frith and Anna Frith are the three main caregivers of their village. Eyam, a rural, small village in Derbyshire, England, is poor and isolated. It is therefore important to ask how an isolated community can be infected. Anna Frith was widowed at 18 and has two young children. She takes George Remington Viccars in as a renter in order to survive. George then receives cloth from London for making dresses for his customers. The plague is on the cloth. The tailor becomes ill and begins to show symptoms of bubonic plague. The tailor dies just a few weeks after contracting the disease. George realizes this before he is taken away. Anna is begging him to burn the dresses. Anna ignores George. The infected clothing is sent to his customers. Anna finds out that the plague has spread to London. Anna’s sons, as well as her neighbors, are the first to die. Anys Gowdie’s niece is also accused of witchcraft. To stop the curse from their village, they form an angry gang and kill both women. Michael Mompellion has been appointed as the new parish priest. Michael asks people not to riot in his Sunday sermon. Michael also encourages the villagers to remain in the village. The residents are hoping to die, but this will prevent the spread of plague. The village decides that it will be quarantined and isolated from the rest of the world. The Bradfords flee to escape the disease. Anna follows them to the Mompellions. Elinor mompellion teaches Anna to read and takes her under her wing. As they work together to take care of their village, the two women grow closer. Michael Mompellion proposes that the villagers burn their possessions to try to eradicate the plague. Michael’s idea works, and he organizes a service to thank the villagers for the success of his plan. Elinor was killed during the service by a villager who had gone insane after her children died.

The novel ends at the same point it began. Michael’s grief has made him incapable of caring for the village. Anna leaves the village after trying to console him. Anna had originally intended to stay with Elinor and her family in England. Instead, she takes a boat from Oran to Oran’s coast in North Africa. She becomes the wife of a Muslim physician, but only in name, to study with him. She becomes the midwife of local Muslim woman. Elinor is a daughter of Michael Mompellion and Elizabeth Bradford.