Published in 1992 or so, Doomsday Book takes place in 2054 and 14th century Oxford with a pandemic in both storylines.I first read this novel at least twenty years ago, and it was the first time I'd seen the word "pandemic." A pandemic had taken place around our current time, and ever since, people had been given turbo-anti virals, so much so that young people didn't even know what colds felt like. Therefore when a university student contracted an illness, all he could tell was that something was wrong.

In the mid-21st century, time travel is a thing that historians get to do, even an undergrad like Kivrin can go back to the middle ages to have the ultimate primary source experience. Meanwhile, back in the 21st century, self-important history professors are fighting stubbornly, and tedious American bell ringers have been quarantined along with a busybody mother, and a boy who sneaked through the quarantine perimeter to be with his great aunt/not be with his mother and mother's live-in for the Christmas holidays.

Things go terribly wrong in both worlds, but there is also some beauty in the way people care for one another, sometimes even after they're gone.