Highly recommended by friends, this was not a great read for me in these Covid-19 days. Based on the true story of a remote English village in England who faced the bubonic plague (The Black Death) in 1665, the topic was too close to home.
Told by villager Sarah, the rector encourages the town to close their borders early on in the pandemic, in order to keep the disease from getting out of their boundaries. An outwardly noble and responsible choice, the congregation hesitantly take a vow together. This is a story of death, greed, anger, sadness, violence, selfishness and murder. When grief consumes a community, consolation and kindness are the first response...but as time goes by, division and strife follow. Sarah details the sins of the townspeople, and outlines her deep friendship with the rector and his wife, Elinor; whose relationship she finds out later is not what it appeared to be.
I think this was a hard read because our country has recently seen this kind of downturn after a year of quarantining and fear... judgmentalism, unkindness, hatred, loud rhetoric, taking sides, vengeful acts. It reminds me that "to err is human, to forgive is divine". My prayer is that the relationships lost during our current pandemic, will be mended with communication and forgiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment