Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

I'm nearly finished with The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. When I picked it up as an audiobook at the library, I had no idea who Connie Willis was, and had never heard of the book itself. But there are so few sci-fi audiobooks available at the local branch that I'm more willing to experiment with the unknown. In this case, I'm should be a little ashamed, I suppose. Willis has won 6 Nebulas and 6 Hugos (including one of each for this book) and a variety of other awards. How have I never heard of her?

Anyway, this book is an absolutely fabulous compare/contrast of modern and medieval approaches to epidemics. I won't say more, other than that I love the characters, I love the premise, I love the treatment of time-travel. I love the combination of predictability and surprise. I love that the story takes place around Christmas, so reading it at this time of the year was just icing on the cake.

Willis spent five years writing this book and published it in 1992. This last detail is somewhat important, for there are several technological mistakes about near-future England that I found disconcerting, such as the lack of cell-phones, primitive computers, etc. But it makes more sense from an early 90s point of view.

Edit: corrected year of publication. Also, it won the Nebula for best novel, 1992, and tied for Hugo best novel 1993.