I am admittedly a huge Geraldine Brooks fan-March and People of the Book being two of my all time favorites and yet I had delayed reading A Year of Wonders most probably because at one point I heard it described as a novel of the plague. Loosely based on the real town of Eyam that made the unprecedented decision to quarantine themselves in the 1600’s hoping to prevent further spread of the disease-it is fascinating to see the twists and turns that Brooks effortlessly forces us through.

Central to the story is Anna Frith a widowed housemaid working for the Rector Michael Mompellion, a young and charismatic preacher and his wife Elinor, a high born beauty. At the suggestion of the rector Anna takes in a lodger, a tailor, who inadvertently through a bolt of cloth brings disease to their village. As the plague starts to decimate the population the rector urges the town to quarantine in an attempt to prevent spreading the contagion to neighboring villages-once the inhabitants agree to this enforced detention you experience the new daily rhythm of death and what it means to be trapped.

As with any tale of hardship Brooks gives you the broad spectrum of human responses-there are heroes and villains, fear and accusations, growth and death. She adds complexity to her characters and through that you question morality and faith-nothing and no one is ever exactly what they seem. Interesting to me was Anna’s story-she grows from a servant to a healer and when you expect one ending there is a dramatic shift and Anna’s tale ends in an entirely new place.

I left A Year of Wonders evaluating my moral compass given such an extreme event and applying the lessons learned to my daily life.