Capital by Maureen Duffy

A brilliant novel of contemporary London life and a haunting re-creation of a city throughout its ages. Meepers—the homeless, disheveled, yet enlightened and mystically knowing amateur archaeologist—searches to understand the destruction of London in the Dark Ages and seeks to predict the capital's future. In a dazzling mixture of contemporary life and period speech, London is illuminated through the voices of Neanderthal man, Saxon kings, anonymous invaders, the flea that spread the black death, and the transsexual King Elizabeth.