Year
of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
(Tansley Reads Rating 67%)
Icebreaker
What home remedies do you remember from your childhood? Do you still use any of
them?
Discussion:
- We know quite a bit
about the outcome right at the beginning of this novel, such as who
survives or doesn’t. How does that affect the suspense?
- Why do you think
Mompellion felt compelled to preach the isolation sermon (beginning on p.
99)? Do you think it was the right
decision for the village?
- The colonel tells
Mompellion, “I think [the sermon] was very well done of you. They may as
well have some comfort, since they have no choice”. Do you think they had
no choices?
- What held those who
were less ethical from leaving in secret?
- What do you think
about the Bradfords and the way they chose to leave?
- Many of the characters
had mixed motives for what they did in the story. What were some of them,
and was it realistic?
- Do you think we’d
be likely today to isolate ourselves and make the sacrifice that the
people of Eyam did?
- How did women in
the novel show greater strength than the men possessed? [ Anna, Elinor, Jane Martin, Anys and Mem
Gowdie, even Aphra]
- The Gowdies are
non-conformists, and so become scapegoats. What is it in their behaviour
that incites such murderous rage among their neighbours?
- What do the people of Eyam think is God’s
role in suffering?
- What was it about Anna that enabled her
to become the person she was at the end of the story? Why is she the
narrator of the story?
Once-around What
is your overall feeling about the book?
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