Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks. Penguin, 2001

A novel about the Bubonic Plague set in a very poor English village doesn't sound very promising, but 'Year of Wonders' is a marvelous book. While grim things happen- many, many grim things- the story itself is not grim.

Told in the first person by Anna Firth, a teenaged widow with two young children who works for the rector, the story makes clear that this is not an easy time or place to live in, even before the plague hit. Anna was abused as a child by a father who has not one redeeming virtue - which becomes very evident later in the book- and married young in part to get out of his house. Her husband, a lead miner, dies in a cave in, leaving Anna to continue on alone. She takes work at the rectory as well as raising chickens and sheep and doing all the subsistence work that one had to do in the days before there were stores to buy things in. But the rector's wife recognizes her intelligence and teaches her to read and write, expanding Anna's horizons considerably. She takes a lodger, a young tailor, who becomes her suitor and soon becomes the first plague victim.

Based upon a real place and event, 'Year of Wonder's chronicles the year of 1666 in the village of Eyam, a remote place where people subsist on lead mining and sheep herding. Plague erupts suddenly, first a couple of isolated cases, then soon spreading throughout the small town and even to the far laying farms. The town's young rector, Michael Mompellion (William Mompesson in real history), convinces the town to quarantine itself to prevent the plague from spreading. All agree except for the area's one rich family, which decamps promptly. During the year of quarantine and death the best and the worst in people comes out. The village healers, aunt and niece herbalists, are accused of witchcraft and of causing the plague. Orphans are taken advantage of. Anna's father becomes an itinerant grave digger, taking all of value that the family survivors have. People take to buying magical charms as a last resort. Throughout all this, the rector remains a figure of strength and his wife, Elinor, one of mercy as they tend to the spiritual and material needs of the village without let up. Is this couple really as perfect as they seem? Well, no. Elinor, who becomes friends with Anna despite the difference in their social standing, freely admits her failings to Anna. The couple has more secrets than anyone could guess.

Brooks paints Eyam vividly and gives a real feel for what life was like back then. Her characters are vivid and human, although Anna, Elinor and the herb women seem a bit too modern in outlook at times. But surely there were a few people then that felt women needn't be cowed creatures; if not, well, this one flaw can be forgiven in the face of how good this story is.