Year of wonders : a novel of the plague

In 1666, plague scorched London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, to escape contagion.

The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital.

The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp fabric carried with it bubonic infection.

So begins the Year of Wonders, in which a Pennine village of 350 souls confronts a scourge beyond remedy or understanding.

Desperate, the villagers turn to sorcery, herb lore, and murderous witch-hunting.

Then, led by a young and charismatic preacher, they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine.

The story is told through the eyes of Anna Frith who, at only 18, must contend with the death of her family, the disintegration of her society, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit attraction.

Geraldine Brooks's novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of 17th century science and religion to deal with a seemingly diabolical pestience.Year of Wonders is also an eloquent memorial to the real-life Derbyshire villagers who chose to suffer alone during England's last great plague.

Geraldine Brooks is the author of two acclaimed works of nonfiction, Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence.

She is also a former war correspondent whose writing has appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Guardian.

Year of Wonders is her first novel.