How+an+author+tells+their+story+-+using+structure

Great writers create tension on the page and through the power of their writing and the choices they make in how they tell the story make the reader want to know more and keep turning the page. Geraldine Brooks makes some very interesting choices in how she chooses to tell this story. It is not told in a linear way. The book starts after the Plague has ravaged the village. Why?

Further, we know from the cover that this is a novel of the Plague. However the word plague is not mentioned specifically in the text until page 60. As readers we are drip fed information and this creates the necessary tension to make this a work of great fiction. The extract from Annus Mirabilis mentions spotted deaths and poisn’d darts – powerful images of a savage death. The first of the four sections of the book is entitled //Leaf-Fall 1666//, yet we know that the Plague occurred in 1665. So someone, the narrator of this story, we can conclude has survived the spotted death. The first line of novel is, “ I used to love this season.” This is in the past tense – so a question is raised in the reader’s mind – what has happened to the narrator? The first chapter the narrator talks about the present day, the devastation that something has wreaked on her community and as readers we are left to question – what was the terrible thing that has ravaged this community – what was the contest between faith and futility?

The next section of the novel is entitled Spring and we go back to the year 1665. Spring is a powerful metaphor for new life. But again as readers, we know that a terrible tempest is coming. The first mention of the Plague occurs on page 42, just after the narrator the widow Anna has had a romantic encounter with her lodger George. As readers we are provided with graphic and powerful images of the Plague, but the curse is not mentioned specifically until page 60 when Anna is serving at a Formal dinner, when a guest from London names it.
 * [[image:eyam/Picture_27.png caption="Description of George Viccars illness page 42"]] ||
 * Description of George Viccars illness page 42 ||
 * As readers what is the effect of this structure? How do you feel about Anna and the villagers of Eyam? **