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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Deaths from plague; the physical reality of the Black Death is depicted without sanitization; mass death throughout the medieval sequences
Language
Barely any
Clean language; academic and period-appropriate prose
Sexual Content
Barely any
No sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
None
Emotional Intensity
Very heavy
The extreme and relentless psychological weight of watching an entire community die; one of the most emotionally devastating novels in science fiction
What this book is about
Oxford historian Kivrin travels back to the medieval period for a research visit—but a miscalculation drops her in 1348, as the bubonic plague arrives in England. Connie Willis's Hugo and Nebula-winning novel alternates between Kivrin's harrowing experience in the dying village and her colleagues' frantic attempts to reach her in the future. Devastating and unforgettable.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Mass death from plague depicted throughout
Extremely emotionally devastating—among the most affecting SF novels written
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