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Cargando... El año de la Pestepor Geraldine Brooks
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. The Black Death has always intrigued me, and this book was wonderful in how it explored the emotions attached to plague and the spreading of disease. The characters are especially enthralling, no doubt partly because they are based on real people. Highly recommend to those interested in history and social challenges brought on by disease. I came to this book by an NPR article discussing pandemic lit. It's a fictionalized tale of the real English town that, struck by plague in 1665, chose to sacrifice themselves by quarantining the town in hopes of preventing the spread of disease to their neighbors. At least, that's the framework for the story, but the real story is its characters and how they respond to the crisis, how they endure or find strength or break as they lose their neighbors and loved ones. How for some, it's business and opportunism as usual as they use legal means to take a valuable mine from an orphaned child because her dead father can no longer work it or defend it, or price-gouging for grave-digging services when the church graveyard is full and there is a shortage of able-bodied men. How the taverns are always full and the fearful mob inevitably looks for witches to burn. But it's also the story of neighbors looking out for each other, of a mother rising above the grief of her lost children to care for the dying and deliver the new babies when the doctors flee the town, of the religious leaders look past their fundamental differences to provide leadership to people in need, how a pastor and his wife work tirelessly to minister to the whole town, good or evil of spirit, deserving and undeserving. There are some odd twists at the end that surprised and angered and disappointed me, but overall the story had me fascinated throughout. Audiobook via Overdrive, and I strongly recommend you do NOT do this one on audio, because it's read by the author who may be a very good writer but is a terrible narrator, and yet I was so engaged with the story that even her droning voice couldn't put me off.
Discriminating readers who view the term historical novel with disdain will find that this debut by praised journalist Brooks (Foreign Correspondence) is to conventional work in the genre as a diamond is to a rhinestone. With an intensely observant eye, a rigorous regard for period detail, and assured, elegant prose, Brooks re-creates a year in the life of a remote British village decimated by the bubonic plague. Aparece abreviada enTiene como guía de estudio aPremiosListas de sobresalientes
Based on the true story of Eyam, the "Plague Village," in the rugged mountain spine of England. In 1666, a tainted bolt of cloth from London carries bubonic infection to this isolated settlement of shepherds and lead miners. A visionary young preacher convinces the villagers to seal themselves off in a deadly quarantine to prevent the spread of disease. The story is told through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Anna Frith, the vicar's maid, as she confronts the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love. As the death toll rises and people turn from prayers and herbal cures to sorcery and murderous witch-hunting, Anna emerges as an unlikely and courageous heroine in the village's desperate fight to save itself. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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The novel uses an actual plague village from 1666 to tell the story. The horrors of the plague are vividly described. There are hundred of deaths, sometimes entire families. The plague brings out the best and worst of people. Anna's father and step mother are particularly repulsive. He is a drunkard who becomes a grave digger who extorts the families of the dead for his services, at one point he attempts to bury a boy alive. For this, he suffers a gruesome death at the hands of the outraged villagers. Anna's step mother loses her mind and in a frenzy unintentionally strikes Elinor with a knife killing her.
The plague runs its course. While still grieving Elinor, Richard has relations with Anna. He tells her that he was never intimate with Elinor, justifying his withholding of relations as her deserved atonement for her sin of aborting her baby. This shocks Anna and she withdraws from him. Anna encounters Elizabeth, the daughter of the local nobility. Elizabeth says her mother soon to die from a labor turned bad. Anna has had some experience as a midwife and goes to the Bradford estate to find that there has been an intentional effort to hasten the mother's death. After she successfully delivers the infant she observes Elizabeth trying to drown the new born. Her mother's pregancy was the result of an adulterous affair bringing shame on the family. Anna is falsely accused of taking jewels and, with the new born girl, flees. As she is being pursued she takes a ship which ultimately lands in Oman. She is taken in by Ahmen Bey, who, like Avincenna, is renowned for his advances in medicine. She becomes one of Bey's wives and bears his child. She becomes a medicine person, particularly for women who are not comfortable with male doctors.
The novel is well-plotted. The author has researched the effects of the disease. The descriptions of the sickness and violence are quite strong. ( )