You’ve probably heard of Eyam. It’s that tiny village in Derbyshire that basically decided to commit collective suicide—or at least, collective isolation—to save the rest of England from the Black Death in 1665. It’s a heavy story. But honestly, the book Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks takes that historical footnote and turns it into something much more visceral than a history textbook ever could.
Most people come to this book expecting a dry historical drama. They get a punch to the gut instead.
Brooks, who started her career as a journalist covering global conflicts, doesn't do "pretty" history. She does the kind of history that smells like vinegar and rotting flesh. It’s gritty. It’s also surprisingly hopeful in a way that feels earned rather than cheap.
What Actually Happens in the Book Year of Wonders?
The story is narrated by Anna Frith. She’s a young widow, a housemaid, and—by the end of the book—essentially the village’s backbone. When a tailor in Eyam receives a box of flea-infested cloth from London, the Plague arrives. It’s fast. It’s terrifying.
Instead of fleeing and spreading the disease to the surrounding towns, the villagers, led by their charismatic (and eventually crumbling) rector Michael Mompellion, decide to wall themselves in. No one goes out. No one comes in. It’s a literal death sentence for many of them.
What makes the book Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks stand out isn't just the medical horror. It’s the psychological collapse of a community. You see people turn to superstition. You see "witch-hunting" happen in real-time when science fails to explain why some live and others die. Brooks captures that specific kind of madness that happens when people are trapped and terrified. It feels hauntingly familiar if you’ve lived through any modern period of isolation, though obviously, our stakes weren't quite "buboes in the armpits" high.
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The Real History vs. The Fiction
Brooks didn't just pull this out of thin air. The village of Eyam is a real place. You can go there today and see the "plague cottages" and the boundary stones where people left money in vinegar (to disinfect it) in exchange for food from neighboring towns.
However, Brooks takes liberties—as any good novelist should. The real Michael Mompellion was indeed the rector, and his wife Catherine did die helping the sick. But the internal lives, the specific betrayals, and the complicated ending for Anna Frith? That’s all Brooks. She uses the historical framework to ask: What happens to your soul when your world becomes a graveyard?
Why Most Readers Get the Ending Wrong
If you search for reviews of the book Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, you’ll find a lot of people complaining about the final act. No spoilers here, but it takes a massive left turn. It leaves the damp, grey hills of England for something entirely different.
Some call it "unrealistic." I’d argue it’s the only way the book could have ended. After a year of watching everyone you love die, you don't just go back to being a housemaid. You don't just "move on." You have to become a completely different person in a completely different world. Anna’s transformation from a submissive servant to a woman with agency—and medical knowledge—is the whole point. It’s about the "wonders" that emerge from the "year" of horror.
The title itself is a play on Annus Mirabilis, the Latin phrase for "year of wonders," which John Dryden used to describe 1666. While London was burning and the plague was rife, people were also making massive scientific breakthroughs. It’s that duality. Destruction and creation happening in the same breath.
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Character Deep Dive: The Women of Eyam
While the men in the village mostly lose their minds or their authority, the women—Anna and the rector’s wife, Elinor—become the healers.
- They experiment with herbs.
- They act as midwives in the middle of a cemetery.
- They provide the emotional labor that keeps the social fabric from tearing completely.
Elinor Mompellion is a fascinating character because she isn't a saint. She has a dark past, a "sin" she’s trying to atone for by being the perfect minister's wife. Brooks writes her with so much nuance that you forget she’s a fictionalized version of a historical figure. When she and Anna start studying old medical texts and gardening for cures, the book becomes a proto-feminist manifesto. It’s about seizing knowledge when the traditional power structures (the Church and the local gentry) fail to provide answers.
The Writing Style: Why It’s Not Your Average Historical Fiction
Brooks has this way of writing that is incredibly lush but never flowery. She describes the landscape of Derbyshire with a journalist’s eye for detail. You can feel the cold mist. You can smell the herbs like rue and hyssop.
The pacing is frantic. Then slow. Then frantic again. Just like the plague itself, which would burn through a household in days and then linger in the silence of an empty street for weeks.
The dialogue feels "old" without being "ye olde." It doesn’t feel like a Renaissance Faire. It feels like real people talking. This is a hard balance to strike. If you go too modern, it breaks the immersion; too archaic, and it’s unreadable. Brooks hits the sweet spot.
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Common Misconceptions About the Plague in the Novel
- It was all about the rats. Actually, in the book Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, and in real life, the flea was the primary culprit. The book does a great job showing how the villagers didn't understand the transmission, leading them to kill their cats and dogs—which only made the rat population (and the fleas) explode.
- Everyone was a hero. Far from it. Brooks shows the cowardice, too. The wealthy landholders who wall themselves off with plenty of food while the poor starve. The people who try to profit off the fear by selling fake charms or "cures."
- It’s a depressing book. It’s heavy, sure. But it’s fundamentally about resilience. It’s about the fact that even after the worst possible year, the sun still comes up, and there’s still a world out there to explore.
How to Get the Most Out of Reading Year of Wonders
If you’re planning to pick this up, or if you’re a student studying it, don't just focus on the death toll. Look at the shift in power.
Watch how Anna’s vocabulary changes. Look at how she stops looking at the floor when she speaks to her "betters." The plague was a Great Equalizer. When the person who pays your wages is dying in the same dirt as the person who cleans your chimney, the old social hierarchies start to look pretty ridiculous.
Also, pay attention to the botany. Brooks did an insane amount of research into 17th-century herbalism. The "wonders" aren't just the survival of the village; they are the discoveries Anna makes about the natural world.
Actionable Takeaways for Readers and Researchers
If you want to dive deeper into the world of the book Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, here are a few things you can do to enrich the experience:
- Research the real Eyam: Look up the Eyam Museum's digital archives. Seeing the actual names of the families—the Hadfields, the Viccars, the Hancocks—makes the characters in the book feel much more haunting.
- Explore Brooks’ other work: If you like her style, March (which won the Pulitzer) or People of the Book are equally meticulous in their research. She has a specific "voice" that bridges the gap between journalism and poetry.
- Look into the 1665 Plague of London: To understand the context of why Eyam was so isolated, you need to understand the chaos happening in London at the same time. The Great Fire of 1666 eventually "helped" by burning down the rat-infested slums, but the year prior was pure anarchy.
- Study the "Annus Mirabilis" concept: Understanding the scientific shift from 1665 to 1667 helps explain the ending of the novel. The world was moving from a dark age of superstition into the Enlightenment. Anna Frith represents that shift.
The book Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks isn't just a story about a virus. It’s a story about what’s left when everything else is stripped away. It’s about the fact that even in the middle of a literal apocalypse, humans still find ways to fall in love, commit crimes, learn new skills, and eventually, find a way out.
It’s a brutal read, but a necessary one. Especially if you’ve ever wondered how much pressure a human soul can take before it either breaks or turns into a diamond.