Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a surprise. I have owned the book for years as part of a Great Science Fiction collection, but never got round to reading it. I have struggled to focus, particularly on fiction, in recent months and downloaded this from Audible as the description sounded lightweight, something to pass the time, an easy read...

In the 2050s, Oxford historians explore the past using time travel, sending well-prepared scholars back to the period of study to witness the people, and the lives they led, first-hand. Kivrin, a student of Medieval England, travels back to the 14th century, despite the concerns of her professor, Mr Dunworthy, who is fearful of potential harm which could befall her. Arriving in the 1300s, Kivrin, intending to pass herself off as the survivor of a bandit's assault on the road, is ironically knocked unconscious and 'rescued' by a local, losing the location of her pickup point by which she can return to the 21st century. Meanwhile, in 2054 illness overcomes a panicked technician who seemed to be on the point of revealing an accident or error in calculations affecting Kivrin's time travel, but falls into a coma before he can explain. As the Oxford campus is locked down in quarantine, Dunworthy struggles to understand what has happened and work out how to bring Kivrin home.

DOOMSDAY BOOK was written in 1993. The 2050s characters act and speak, and the settings feel, more like the 1950s. It feels dated, although enjoyably so, with its Christmas Carol services, bellringing, local pubs, and gifts from Debenhams (a department store which, once thriving, no longer exists). Yet Connie Willis seems to predict the recent pandemic, or something very like it, possibly also Brexit and its associated protests and counterprotests. Characters use videophones but, in another old-fashioned touch, dial numbers and use public phoneboxes, email or instant messaging, the internet even, missing from the author's predictions.

In the 1300s meanwhile, the characters are realistic and sympathetic and it is hard not be drawn into the tragedy of their lives. In a parallel to the outbreak in 2050s Oxford, and indeed the Covid-19 pandemic, Kivrin finds herself not in 1320 but in 1348, the time of the Black Death. Her story is harrowing and heart-breaking, far from the light adventure I was anticipating.

Ultimately despite, perhaps partly because, of the anachronisms and the Agatha Christie-like portrayal of Oxford academia, I loved this book. As quaint and 'proper' as I found the future characters, especially compared to the hardships and struggle of the medieval cast, I found both to be well-drawn and relatable. And it is the characters who drive the story, not how time-travel works, and it is Connie Willis's expert touch with the characters which makes DOOMSDAY BOOK incredibly emotional and moving. Not what I was expecting but probably what I really needed.

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