Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (by Geraldine Brooks)

My friend Margaret bought me this book for Christmas. Geraldine Brooks (born 14 September 1955) is an Australian journalist and author whose 2005 novel, March, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I'm about halfway through it and loving it so far. It shows how people are changed by catastrophe and, in this instance, the catastrophe caused by the Bubonic Plague or Black Death. It's based on one of the spookiest villages in England - Eyam in Derbyshire - in the 1600s. George Viccars was a village tailor in Eyam who ordered a box of cloth from London and five days later he was dead. Most of the village's inhabitants died soon after.  Nowadays this village is a popular tourist attraction thanks to George's cloth, Bubonic plague infested fleas in the cloth, and a nursery rhyme:

"A ring, a ring o' roses,
A pocket full o’posies-
Atishoo atishoo we all fall down."

Amazon book description: "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.