The Doomsday Book

The story is set in 2054 at Oxford University, where historians can travel through time to observe history firsthand. History student Kivrin finally gains permission to join the research project she has long dreamed of: going back to medieval England to record the lives of ordinary people up close, comparing her record to a "Doomsday Book." The journey seems to go smoothly, but as soon as Kivrin arrives in the past she develops a high fever and falls into delirium; when she wakes, she finds herself in a world completely different from what she expected. In 2054 Oxford, the technician who set her time coordinates suddenly falls ill, and a mysterious plague that even modern medicine cannot identify spreads across the campus; the entire city is quarantined and external communications are cut off. Her mentor, Mr. Dunworthy, firmly believes Kivrin is trapped in a dangerous past; while trying to rescue her in a nearly paralyzed modern city, he also faces tests of his own health and duty. The novel advances through dual narratives: one follows Kivrin struggling to survive in the medieval countryside and trying to recover her return coordinates, the other tells of the chaos and humanity in modern Oxford under the plague. The two timelines are ultimately linked by the same question: in the face of shared disaster, how do people protect one another and hold on to hope? This is the first book in the Oxford Time Travel series and won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for Best Novel.