--- product_id: 8283774 title: "Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague" price: "71.38 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/8283774-year-of-wonders-a-novel-of-the-plague store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # Set in 1666, historical authenticity Pulitzer Prize-winning author Top 400 in Contemporary Literature Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague **Price:** 71.38 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 📖 Dive into history’s most gripping year of wonders! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague - **How much does it cost?** 71.38 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/8283774-year-of-wonders-a-novel-of-the-plague) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Unforgettable heroine:** Follow Anna Frith’s inspiring journey of courage, healing, and resilience in a quarantined village. - • **Pulitzer Prize pedigree:** From the acclaimed author of The Secret Chord and March, experience award-winning storytelling. - • **Immersive 17th-century setting:** Step back to 1666 England with richly detailed historical accuracy that brings the plague era to life. - • **Top-ranked contemporary fiction:** Join thousands of readers who made this a bestseller, ranking #362 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction. - • **Emotional intelligence meets suspense:** A spellbinding blend of love, loss, superstition, and survival that keeps you hooked till the last page. ## Overview Year of Wonders is a critically acclaimed historical novel set in 1666 England, following a village’s self-quarantine during the plague. Written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, it features a compelling heroine and richly detailed storytelling that explores community, resilience, and human spirit amid catastrophe. A bestseller with over 13,000 reviews and a 4.4-star rating, it’s a must-read for lovers of historical fiction and powerful narratives. ## Description “Plague stories remind us that we cannot manage without community . . . Year of Wonders is a testament to that very notion.” – The Washington Post An unforgettable tale, set in 17th century England, of a village that quarantines itself to arrest the spread of the plague, 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. Review: Excellent novel based on true events of a village fighting the bubonic plague - Year of Wonders is a novel inspired by a real village in 17th century england that was hit with one of the last waves of bubonic plague on English soil. In real life, Eyam England, a village of about 800 souls, agreed to self isolate when the plague hit in 1665 so as to prevent the spread to the rest of england. for a year they were cut off from the rest of england, struggling with the disease, and in the end half the town dying off. That, friends, is the plot of the book. The characters in the book are fictional, but many are based on real persons of the time. We see these events unfold through the eyes of Anna, a lowly servant woman and young widow. as one after another, high born and low, good and bad, fall ill we see anna struggle with the gruesome disease, and the loss of her friends, neighbors, and her own children. We see her grow in strength and wisdom, discovering a talent for healing and medicine. she rises from 'oh, that servant peasant' to one of the key pillars of the town. Through her we see people react in ways that are historically documented: some become zealots, others give into lusts and live for the day. some run from responsibility, others grow with strength and wisdom they didn't know they had. in the end the town is devastated but survives, and Anna has a new path open up to her in a twist i didn't see coming. The characters are well fleshed out, engaging, and realistic. the plot keeps moving and doesn't bog down - it was a page turner for me. the author paints the period and details of daily living (obviously well researched) so vividly that you really can feel part of the events of the time. The book is festooned with relatively archaic words for long past items and tools, accurate for the time but probably unfamiliar to most readers. All in all, an excellent book. highly recommend. Review: Hypocrisy, Ignorance, Religion, and the challenges of Nature - [some spoilers included] Villages in mid-17th c. England were often enclaves unto themselves, except for traveling merchants and the wealthy who could afford to venture distantly. The town’s tight enclosure intensifies the relationships between the inhabitants, and when the bubonic plague strikes because an outsider brings in flea-invested cloth, the claustrophobic feeling is exponentially increased. This is multiplied again when the rector Michael Mompellion urges the village to self-isolate rather than spread the disease to nearby areas. The book is rich in authentic detail and thoroughly researched. There is an overall darkness and almost claustrophobic mood rendered in the novel…the sense of being imprisoned by the boundaries of the town, the darkness of ignorance that pervades the inhabitants; the oppression of religious dogma, the degradation of women and the cruelty against those who were believed to practice witchcraft, the unjust class system as exemplified by the wealthy, selfish Bradford family, and the physical darkness of a world without much light. A world of dirt, hunger, impoverishment, plague-infested fleas, and death. The writing is brilliant. So many poetic and richly observed lines such in the first paragraph: “The wood stacked by the door, the tang of its sap still speaking of forest. The hay made, all golden in the last of the afternoon light. The rumble of the apples tumbling into the cellar bins.” Here, as throughout, Brooks evokes our senses: visual, aural, smells, which is the hallmark of a great writer because these descriptions set the reader firmly into place. “We live all aslant here, on this steep flank of the great White Peak. We are always tilting forward to toil uphill or bracing backward on our heels to slow a swift descent.” A brilliant observation! Or Anna’s cottage: “It was a tiny place, just one room propped upon another, so ill-built that the hatch sat rakishly atop the whole like a cap pulled crooked across a brow. The cottage was set hard into the side of the hill, crouching before the winter winds that roared across the moors.” I greatly appreciated the skill with which Geraldine Brooks created this world. There were, however, some scenes I found very uncomfortable. While I can read a gory murder mystery without issue, the scene in which Anna Frith must deliver a baby made me extremely squeamish. This account was too extended and graphic, although it was a horrifically accurate portrayal. The sermons delivered by Michael Mompellion were also unsettling to read. As a secular person (as is the author), I found these overbearing, pompous, and egotistical—as if he alone possessed superior wisdom. Even so, Brooks portrays Mompellion as a white hat until, suddenly, his hat turns black when his cruelty toward his kind and lovely wife, Elinor, is revealed. We learn that he refused to sleep with Elinor because, as a naïve teenager, she had been tricked into having sex with a man who promised marriage and then, when she was pregnant, left her, forcing her to abort the child. The fact that the rector deems her sinful and that she must be punished for her sins by never having sex with him…well, what about Charles, who seduced the young Elinor when he was older and more experienced? He didn’t seem to be a target of the priest’s vilification, nor does Mompellion seem disturbed by having illegitimate sex with Anna—okay for him but not for the woman? But then we have these lines uttered by Mompellion to Anna: “What could she [Elinor] give in atonement for the life that, because of her actions, never could be lived? Because lust caused the sin, I deemed that she should atone by living some part of her life with her lust unrequited. The more I could make her love me, the more her penance might weigh in the balance to equal her sin.” And: “I had to be assured she was cleansed or else risk the loss of her for eternity.” In other words, once she was dead, they could have sex together in heaven? When Anna asks, “And you?” Mompellion laughs and replies, “Do you know why women are the dregs of the Devil’s dunghill? When they [men] want a woman, they school themselves to turn their thoughts to all the vile omissions of her body.” And: “I, the husband, am the image of God in the kingdom of the home…and now it seems that there is no God, and I was wrong.” Poor self-involved fool! I can think of no other novel except perhaps Hawaii by James Michener, which depicts another rapid minister, that so delineates the horrors perpetrated by men of the cloth. I wish Mompellion had been punished by the author rather than his wife, Elinor. My suggestion? Toss the guy in one of the local lead mines and let Anna and Elinor find a life together. If the author wanted an optimistic ending, this one would serve better the one in which Anna travels to Oran and is smoothly assimilated into the house of Ahmed Bey, learns medicine, and seems to suffer no difficulty with language or culture. This conclusion struck me as forced and tacked on…a quick fix to make a happy ending. Even so, this is a masterful recreation of a dark, frightening period in English history. ## Features - Great product! ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #17,436 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #336 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction #811 in Politics & Government (Books) #1,200 in Family Life Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 13,369 Reviews | ## Images ![Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ECYYFMESL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent novel based on true events of a village fighting the bubonic plague *by K***T on May 24, 2026* Year of Wonders is a novel inspired by a real village in 17th century england that was hit with one of the last waves of bubonic plague on English soil. In real life, Eyam England, a village of about 800 souls, agreed to self isolate when the plague hit in 1665 so as to prevent the spread to the rest of england. for a year they were cut off from the rest of england, struggling with the disease, and in the end half the town dying off. That, friends, is the plot of the book. The characters in the book are fictional, but many are based on real persons of the time. We see these events unfold through the eyes of Anna, a lowly servant woman and young widow. as one after another, high born and low, good and bad, fall ill we see anna struggle with the gruesome disease, and the loss of her friends, neighbors, and her own children. We see her grow in strength and wisdom, discovering a talent for healing and medicine. she rises from 'oh, that servant peasant' to one of the key pillars of the town. Through her we see people react in ways that are historically documented: some become zealots, others give into lusts and live for the day. some run from responsibility, others grow with strength and wisdom they didn't know they had. in the end the town is devastated but survives, and Anna has a new path open up to her in a twist i didn't see coming. The characters are well fleshed out, engaging, and realistic. the plot keeps moving and doesn't bog down - it was a page turner for me. the author paints the period and details of daily living (obviously well researched) so vividly that you really can feel part of the events of the time. The book is festooned with relatively archaic words for long past items and tools, accurate for the time but probably unfamiliar to most readers. All in all, an excellent book. highly recommend. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hypocrisy, Ignorance, Religion, and the challenges of Nature *by L***N on January 2, 2024* [some spoilers included] Villages in mid-17th c. England were often enclaves unto themselves, except for traveling merchants and the wealthy who could afford to venture distantly. The town’s tight enclosure intensifies the relationships between the inhabitants, and when the bubonic plague strikes because an outsider brings in flea-invested cloth, the claustrophobic feeling is exponentially increased. This is multiplied again when the rector Michael Mompellion urges the village to self-isolate rather than spread the disease to nearby areas. The book is rich in authentic detail and thoroughly researched. There is an overall darkness and almost claustrophobic mood rendered in the novel…the sense of being imprisoned by the boundaries of the town, the darkness of ignorance that pervades the inhabitants; the oppression of religious dogma, the degradation of women and the cruelty against those who were believed to practice witchcraft, the unjust class system as exemplified by the wealthy, selfish Bradford family, and the physical darkness of a world without much light. A world of dirt, hunger, impoverishment, plague-infested fleas, and death. The writing is brilliant. So many poetic and richly observed lines such in the first paragraph: “The wood stacked by the door, the tang of its sap still speaking of forest. The hay made, all golden in the last of the afternoon light. The rumble of the apples tumbling into the cellar bins.” Here, as throughout, Brooks evokes our senses: visual, aural, smells, which is the hallmark of a great writer because these descriptions set the reader firmly into place. “We live all aslant here, on this steep flank of the great White Peak. We are always tilting forward to toil uphill or bracing backward on our heels to slow a swift descent.” A brilliant observation! Or Anna’s cottage: “It was a tiny place, just one room propped upon another, so ill-built that the hatch sat rakishly atop the whole like a cap pulled crooked across a brow. The cottage was set hard into the side of the hill, crouching before the winter winds that roared across the moors.” I greatly appreciated the skill with which Geraldine Brooks created this world. There were, however, some scenes I found very uncomfortable. While I can read a gory murder mystery without issue, the scene in which Anna Frith must deliver a baby made me extremely squeamish. This account was too extended and graphic, although it was a horrifically accurate portrayal. The sermons delivered by Michael Mompellion were also unsettling to read. As a secular person (as is the author), I found these overbearing, pompous, and egotistical—as if he alone possessed superior wisdom. Even so, Brooks portrays Mompellion as a white hat until, suddenly, his hat turns black when his cruelty toward his kind and lovely wife, Elinor, is revealed. We learn that he refused to sleep with Elinor because, as a naïve teenager, she had been tricked into having sex with a man who promised marriage and then, when she was pregnant, left her, forcing her to abort the child. The fact that the rector deems her sinful and that she must be punished for her sins by never having sex with him…well, what about Charles, who seduced the young Elinor when he was older and more experienced? He didn’t seem to be a target of the priest’s vilification, nor does Mompellion seem disturbed by having illegitimate sex with Anna—okay for him but not for the woman? But then we have these lines uttered by Mompellion to Anna: “What could she [Elinor] give in atonement for the life that, because of her actions, never could be lived? Because lust caused the sin, I deemed that she should atone by living some part of her life with her lust unrequited. The more I could make her love me, the more her penance might weigh in the balance to equal her sin.” And: “I had to be assured she was cleansed or else risk the loss of her for eternity.” In other words, once she was dead, they could have sex together in heaven? When Anna asks, “And you?” Mompellion laughs and replies, “Do you know why women are the dregs of the Devil’s dunghill? When they [men] want a woman, they school themselves to turn their thoughts to all the vile omissions of her body.” And: “I, the husband, am the image of God in the kingdom of the home…and now it seems that there is no God, and I was wrong.” Poor self-involved fool! I can think of no other novel except perhaps Hawaii by James Michener, which depicts another rapid minister, that so delineates the horrors perpetrated by men of the cloth. I wish Mompellion had been punished by the author rather than his wife, Elinor. My suggestion? Toss the guy in one of the local lead mines and let Anna and Elinor find a life together. If the author wanted an optimistic ending, this one would serve better the one in which Anna travels to Oran and is smoothly assimilated into the house of Ahmed Bey, learns medicine, and seems to suffer no difficulty with language or culture. This conclusion struck me as forced and tacked on…a quick fix to make a happy ending. Even so, this is a masterful recreation of a dark, frightening period in English history. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Wow *by E***Y on August 3, 2026* An extraordinary writer. Visceral, brutal, touching, insightful and a number of times profound. Plus it was a really good tale and fun read. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/8283774-year-of-wonders-a-novel-of-the-plague](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/8283774-year-of-wonders-a-novel-of-the-plague) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-10-24*