Doomsday Book
Somewhere in the future, ordinary history students must travel back in time as part of their university degree. An award-winning best-seller in the United States, this is the first of Connie Willis' brilliant Oxford trilogy.Kivrin knows everything about the Middle Ages - she's read all the books. She knows it's dangerous: cutthroats in the woods, witch hunts, cholera, and millions dying in the plague. For a young historian, it's fascinating.When Kivrin's tutors in Oxford's history lab finally agree to send her on an on-site study trip, she jumps at the chance to observe medieval life first-hand. But a crisis that strangely links the past and future leaves her stranded in the most deadly and terrifying era in human history, face to face with the heart-rending reality behind the statistics. And while she fights for her own life, Kivrin finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope in this dark time.Five years in the writing, Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the timeless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Doomsday Book
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A young Oxford history student named Kivrin is sent back to medieval England in 2054 for two weeks of fieldwork. Something goes wrong with the drop, and a pandemic erupts in present-day Oxford the same week.
Yes. Doomsday Book won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel in 1993, sharing the Hugo with Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep. It is widely considered one of Connie Willis's masterworks.
Doomsday Book is the first novel-length entry in Connie Willis's Oxford Time Travel series. It is followed by To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout, and All Clear. Each book has different characters and can be read as a standalone.
Doomsday Book was written by Connie Willis, published in 1992 by Bantam Books.
Doomsday Book is 559 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Doomsday Book takes most readers 8 to 12 hours to finish.
Doomsday Book is a standalone novel by Connie Willis, not part of a series.
Doomsday Book is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.