An historical novel, not to mention a science fiction novel by Connie Willis. The winner of both a Hugo and a Nebula award, it is (SPOILER WARNING) the incredibly depressing story (although also uplifting for its portrayal of the human spirit) of Kivrin, a young Oxford student who travels through time back to what she thinks is the 1320's. Instead, she discovers that she is in 1348, the year that the Black Death came to England. As she tries to save a village, and in the end can save no one at all, she realizes the common humanity within all people. This book is full of religious symbolism, and the story has many more levels of depth than I did justice to above. This is, in my opinion, one of the greatest novels of all time, and I recommend it for anyone who doesn't want to learn their history from textbooks with all the humanity taken out of them.