farawayeyes4 's review for:

The Black Death: A Personal History by John Hatcher

5.0

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This book is a unique melding of historical text and fictional narrative. It allows us to have as accurate an account of what it might have been like during the period of the Black Death and how a small town/village in England may have endured it. The text explores the society as it would have been prior and then during and after, allowing for a very in-depth look at how a society collapses and then slowly begins to emerge in a new form after such a catastrophic event. It's engaging, thought-provoking, and heartbreaking in its capturing of humanity all while remaining steadfastly within its narrator's confines and viewpoints of the period at hand. To capture something that must have been so horrific, devastating, and unimaginable in this way is a truly gifted thing to have accomplished, and Hatcher does that extremely well here. If you haven't looked into the period before or the human experience during it, I recommend this text. It makes us understand what happened well over 600 years ago in a new light.