Year of Wonders

This book by Geraldine Brooks is a more compelling read than some of the others I have read or tried to read. One of the very first books I read as a member of a book group in Seattle was her non-fiction account of Muslim women, Nine Parts of Desire. That was years ago, and then more recently I read Caleb's Crossing, which I quite liked. I have started and not yet been able to finish People of the Book, but intend to do so before she comes to Bend as part of the library's "Author, Author" series of talks. Like Caleb's Crossing, this book is based loosely on an actual event: in 1666, a town in England chooses to isolate itself--no one leaves or comes in--to prevent the plague from passing beyond its borders. In this account, only the wealthy landowner defies the  minister's exhortations to take on this burden, and that family flees. Our narrator/protagonist, Anna Frith, already widowed by a mining accident, quickly loses her two young sons, and rather than lose herself to grief, begins to work at the rectory and to help the minister and his wife care for plague victims. When some drunken miners instigate the murder of the two women who have served as midwives and makeshift doctors for the town, Anna and Elinor, the minister's wife, seek to master the herbal lore to relieve some of the suffering. Anna and Elinor become close in spite of the significant differences in their social standing; Elinor teaches Anna to read and confesses dark secrets of her past. And Anna ponders on the fact that we never really know those around us. More surprises are in store--up to the very end--and Anna  will move on with her life in a most gratifying way.