Mortality in Wasteland: My Life as Black Death's Undertaker

A personal history of Black Death and its impact on Surrey in the 14th century through the eyes of Niccolai, a young undertaker. His purpose in writing this memoir is to quell rumors propagating throughout the realm, rumors of mysterious deaths not attributed to the plague but by a black-robed apparition feared to be Death incarnate.

As Black Death approaches a small English town, Niccolai, a young unskilled laborer, accepts the job of undertaker’s apprentice. He surveys the town daily for markers representing death on resident’s doors, collects and buries the deceased. Although forbidden, he falls in love with an aristocrat's daughter, Joanna. His biggest concern becomes her safety, keeping her from catching the disease--a disease that wipes out half the population, history's greatest pandemic.