This is a very engrossing story told in amazing detail. I highly recommend the book but be warned - it is one horrific tragedy after another, and the author spares none of the gory details.

Fascinating, realistic portrayal of life in an English village during the plague. Wonderful read and very well written & researched.

A beautifully written story of a young woman surviving through a year when the plague killed most of her friends and family.
It's based on a true story - the author read of a small village in England where the people decided to quarantine themselves to avoid spreding the disease to neighboring towns and villages. She built the character and other details around this framework.
I couldn't stop reading until I had fnished the book!

What a simple life. Also makes you wonder, as I'm sure they did, why some were infected and others not. Have always heard about the plague but have never read a book where it made it so human. Recommend!!

This is a wonderful book. Well-written and moving. Note that all her research shows up in tangents to the plague. That isn't a bad thing, but the book is more a story of life during that time: mining, law enforcement, ideas on witchcraft, etc. I've read many books on the plague—from Defoe to Cantor—but it was interesting to see a broader take on life during that time.

If you like this one, you might like "1066: The Year of the Conquest." It is a history of the Norman invasion as experienced in one village.

I have to say, I have quite enjoyed being able to tell my husband - as we are 30 days to the Presidential election - that instead of watching the politicos duke it out on cable news with him, I would rather "go read about the Plague". :)

Overall, an interesting book. I loved the main character/narrator. The details of the time, the illness itself, the mining and farming techniques and the human behaviors during such a time were interesting, fascinating. The details of the illness itself, while gross, did not disturb me.

The part that ruined the book for me was the "sex scene". It was just too... gratuitous - not necessary, made to reveal a detail that could have been revealed another way. It was too out of character for the two involved, especially when you look at him and what motivated him to do what he did. I feel that could have been left out and she still could have ended up the way/where she had based on the child. (I am trying hard not to write a spoiler!)

I also found the ending, though "nice" a little too unrealistic, and after reading the author's note, I kindof felt like she forced that ending for the narrator based on her own work and interest. Too contrived. Nice, but contrived.

I am interested to read the author's non-fiction now. She is a good writer and creates wonderful description. It was a beautiful read, for a book about the Plague.

This book is absolutely timeless. It is beautifully written and well imagined, and just heartbreaking to the point everything seems real. This book is the type that keeps one intrigued until they let it down, because until the end, you really don't think that book is fiction, not really...

You would think that "A Novel of the Plague" (subtitle) would be too depressing to read, but I did not find that to be the case. I read this book almost non-stop - I was fascinated by the characters, the realistic details of life during 1666 in a small rural English village, what they knew (and didn't know) about medicine, indeed, everything about this book. Highly recommended!

This is a wonderful, touching story about an English village in 1665 that is infected with the plague, and how they determine to cut themselves off from the rest of the world to keep it from spreading.
Note to all you mothers out there - if you can't handle books with small children dying horrible deaths, avoid this one!

Wonderful book - so easy to get caught up in. I felt like I was living the story, it was so vivid. Very powerful and moving.

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A moving portrait of a woman from 1666 in a London town in which the town purposely quarantines themselves to ensure that the Plague does not extend and pass from their town to others. I enjoy Geraldine Brooks' work, particularly "People of the Book," and I would call this a close second to that work. Again, the author has blended fictional and actual events of a town in London, and has written the book from the perspective of a maid that served the town's minister through the quarantine. A simple reference of the maid in an actual letter from the actual minister of the town that quarantined themselves is what propelled the author to begin thinking about what life must have been like for this woman, and she creates a thorough account of that one year from this maid's eyes, drawing on events and actions that are documented from the actual town. I struggled only with the language of the way it was written, as it was written in the same speech as what someone from that time would speak as and write, but once you get used to it, you do not notice it again. It is a moving story, one that you cannot put down.

An amazing book!

I thought it was a very informative book about what it was like to live in a village ravaged by the plague.

Excellent Read. Ending is a bit quick to wrap up after all the wonderful detail. A bit anti climactic. But I would still recommend as a must read

It was a really interesting read. Although the story was about a handmaid in a town with an outbreak of the plague, the story is truly about a town's response to a devastating crisis and how some people rise to the occasion and how some people succumb to the stress and the unspeakable horrors that resulted. The question is "who can hold on to their faith and hope that they will make it through this year of unbelievable tragedy?"

I really enjoyed this book and loved how the author created a very convincing image of an English village in the 1660s. It is evident that Brooks really did her research on many of the aspects of life in England in the 1660s. The village finds itself in the grips of the Plague and decides to quarantine itself to protect neighboring towns. This book showed how a mob mentality can take over and become a truly scary thing, how women with some medical knowledge (even just informal knowledge of herbs) could be seen as witches, and gave pretty graphic descriptions of what a Plague sufferer would have gone through. Anna was also a great character because she does have her flaws. The ending was the only thing that didn't seem to fit with the rest of the novel. It felt a bit forced and out of place with the rest of the book.

Simply beautiful.

This is a fascinating look at the 1600's, the plague and people. A dark subject but so well written that you end up wanting to recommend it to all of your friends.

This is a very slow moving book that begins from beginning to end. I am not a fan of the end of the story at the beginning. I am also not a fan of English literature or at least English stories. I am not sure why, but I have tried them a few times and just can never get it going. In any case, I gave it a good try, there are people on the wish list so I figure I have too many other books that I am very much looking forward to getting to. You just can't love them all! Even if it was highly recommended! I am sure that others will find it enjoyable.

I don't normally like books set in the past, but I loved this book. It shows the selfishness of some and the selflessness of others. I think an individual's true colors show during times like this.

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