First published 1992
Kivrin prepares for her medieval history assignment with vaccines and a cover story. Time travel seems routine until something goes wrong. Her twenty-first century colleagues calculate coordinates and monitor her destination, but their careful plans collapse when crisis strikes both eras simultaneously. Kivrin finds herself trapped in the fourteenth century without hope of rescue. The medieval world she enters seethes with superstition and terror as the Black Death spreads across England. Though barely an adult, Kivrin becomes a beacon of comfort for villagers facing humanity's darkest chapter. Her instructors work frantically to bring her home while she witnesses suffering beyond imagination. Willis weaves together past and future disasters to examine how people endure when everything falls apart. The story reveals how ordinary individuals discover extraordinary strength during catastrophe.
Genres: science-fiction, dystopia, historical-fiction, time-travel
Vibes: emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: England, 14th Century
Period: 14th Century, 21st Century
578 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Bantam Spectra
Content warnings: death