Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering, and the indomitable will of the human spirit. “A tour de force.”—The New York Times Book Review For Kivrin, preparing to travel back in time to study one of the deadliest eras in humanity’s history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received. But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin—barely of age herself—finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history’s darkest hours.

"First published in the United Kingdom by Puffin Books, 2016."

Through sustained analysis of texts and visual sources, this volume traces the checkered career of Neo-Assyrian religious interaction with subject polities of Western Asia through both punitive measures and calculated diplomatic patronage.

A descriptive account of the extinction of nearly 300 species and subspecies between 1680 and 1980, profusely illustrated with drawings and watercolor paintings.