Year of Wonders

Year of Wonders is a historical novel by the Australian-American writer Geraldine Brooks, published in 2001. It was named a notable book by both the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The novel is based on the Derbyshire village of Eyam, which quarantined itself when the plague reached it in 1665 and 1666 so that the disease would not spread to the towns nearby. Brooks tells the story through Anna Frith, a young widow working as a maid, who watches her neighbours, her faith and the village's authority all come under strain as the months pass. A charismatic preacher holds the community together, and the book follows what the year does to the people who chose to stay in it.

Brooks was a journalist before she wrote fiction and worked from the documented history of Eyam, one of the most fully recorded of the plague villages. The outbreak there was part of a wider epidemic that affected much of Britain in 1665 and 1666. This was her first historical novel.