Call number
FIC WRI
Collection
Genres
Publication
Knopf (2020), 400 pages
Description
"In this propulsive medical thriller--from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author--Dr. Henry Parsons, an unlikely but appealing hero, races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees. At an internment camp in Indonesia, within one week, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When the microbiologist and epidemiologist Henry Parsons travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi doctor and prince in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city. Matilda Nachinsky, deputy director of U. S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic. Henry's wife Jill and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta and the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the riveting history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
It is interesting how prescient this is. Wright is smart enough to know which existential dangers are most likely and then plays them out to see what happens. He gets small details right - I expect they added some details post-Covid but pre-publication based on real-time observation of events in
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China and Italy. What a story that would make, revising a pandemic novel in the middle of a pandemic. This book gave me one nightmare, which I normally never have, my brain had a hard time differentiating reality from the story - things meld in strange ways. Show Less
LibraryThing member hemlokgang
So.....what would happen if someone decided to take the side of saving earth versus saving humanity? Well, buckle up for a dark, dark ride. A pandemic followed by bio-war. I had read non-fiction by Lawrence Wright, but this is my first read of his fiction. Utterly terrifying!
LibraryThing member auntmarge64
If you want to scare the daylights out of yourself about Covid-19, read this. Although literally just published when I read it, and therefore written before the pandemic, you'll think the author was able to predict events and responses to what's happened. He even got Trump's attitude and actions
A pandemic strikes the world. It's a flu-like virus ("just a bad flu", remember that?) that takes off before it's even recognized. In this case, the epicenter is a Hajj, from which worshipers spread out around the world after being infected by a pilgrim from southeast Asia. Things get to about where we are now, and then just as people are hoping to get back to normal, the second and more deadly wave arrives, as is predicted for Covid-19. This is where the book gets pretty terrifying, not because this kind of tale hasn't been written before but because it's so prescient and on target up to this point. I won't say what happens, but it ain't good.
I thought this would be just a run-of-the-mill pandemic thriller, but it's quite a bit better than that. Not perfect, but you won't be able to put it down.
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spot on.A pandemic strikes the world. It's a flu-like virus ("just a bad flu", remember that?) that takes off before it's even recognized. In this case, the epicenter is a Hajj, from which worshipers spread out around the world after being infected by a pilgrim from southeast Asia. Things get to about where we are now, and then just as people are hoping to get back to normal, the second and more deadly wave arrives, as is predicted for Covid-19. This is where the book gets pretty terrifying, not because this kind of tale hasn't been written before but because it's so prescient and on target up to this point. I won't say what happens, but it ain't good.
I thought this would be just a run-of-the-mill pandemic thriller, but it's quite a bit better than that. Not perfect, but you won't be able to put it down.
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LibraryThing member Beamis12
Scared the bejesus out of me. Keep in mind this was written before Covid, and the parallels are beyond astonishing. A pandemic breaks out, but in China but in Indonesia, ravishing the world. People die, countries shut down, no cure, no vaccine. Henry, in my reading mind I pictured Fauci, is the man
Breakneck pace, an adventure story that hits hard and close to home. Can see this on the big screen in the future. Intense at times, and uncanny. They do say fiction can be stranger than fact, and this proves the saying.
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in charge, trying to find a cure. There is a subplot, one as frightening if not more so, the shutdown if everything we count on to make our country run. I'll stop there, no spoilers.Breakneck pace, an adventure story that hits hard and close to home. Can see this on the big screen in the future. Intense at times, and uncanny. They do say fiction can be stranger than fact, and this proves the saying.
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LibraryThing member JosephKing6602
This was a very entertaining book especially given that this was written BEFORE the Covid19 pandemic became such a pervasive issue for us all. Good 'fictionalized' info about infectious diseases and the science behind pandemics. Clever! You would almost forget that this was fiction! Wright is an
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impressive author. Show Less
LibraryThing member labdaddy4
Unfortunately, this book reads like a non-fiction current events tale. The author obviously did an immense amount of research - the book rings so real and believable. Unfortunately there is also very little optimism and hope. This is a dark and depressing book - made even more so by the incredible
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parallels to current events Very well written if you can stomach the "ride". Show Less
LibraryThing member stevesmits
As a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of non-fiction masterpieces like "Going Clear"and "The Looming Tower" one would expect Wright's fictional work to be factually accurate. You will learn much about the nature of Covid and other viral pathogens and the work to contain and block them.
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The book does not disappoint in this regard and is a thriller as well. Show Less
LibraryThing member SamSattler
Lawrence Wright’s pandemic novel The End of October was published on April 28, 2020, meaning that it was probably pretty much written, edited, and in the hands of his publisher by the time our own real-world COVID-19 pandemic was really hitting its stride. If that assumption is true, the first
“Disease was more powerful than armies. Disease was more arbitrary than terrorism. Disease was crueler than the human imagination.” (Page 22)
Dr. Henry Parsons first hears of the Kongoli virus at a “parliament of health officials” in Geneva, Switzerland. The next-to-last presentation of the last day of the conference focuses on an unusual cluster of forty-seven bloody deaths in a West Java refugee camp (although it turns out that the camp is actually a prison for Muslim homosexuals). Parsons does not believe the official Indonesian government explanation of the deaths, so he agrees to collect samples from the camp for further study before heading home to Atlanta. But as it turns out, he will not see Atlanta, his wife, or his two children again for a long, long time.
Within hours of his arrival in the squalid camp, Parsons is convinced that an unidentified virus is responsible for the horrendous deaths – and that he has made a terrible, perhaps fatal, mistake by not quarantining his driver before the man could drive away on his own. By the time the driver could be tracked down, he was on the hajj to Mecca along with millions of other devout Muslims. And now everything that can possibly go wrong, is about to. A highly contagious flu virus with a death rate of close to 50% is about to be unleashed on the world.
The second half of The End of October (which is a reference to the expected timing of the second wave of the virus) is more dystopian than the first half of the book. Just about the time that the virus seems to have passed its peak (the old flattening of the curve theory we are all so familiar with by now), “the lights go out” in the United States because the dictators in Russia, Iran, and North Korea (and perhaps others) decide that this is the perfect time to launch an all-out cyber-war against America. But as catastrophic as this second scenario is, it all feels a little rushed and somehow fails to pack the punch provided by the earlier part of Wright’s story.
Bottom Line: The End of October is one of those thrillers (cliché warning) pulled from today’s headlines and, as such, it can be nerve-rackingly scary to read this one at times. Wright’s story also includes concise accounts of the major pandemics that have plagued the world in the past and how those were either dealt with or played themselves out. It’s impossible to put a happy face on this one.
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half of Wright’s novel rather uncannily tracks what we’ve gone through with COVID-19, including even our silly arguments about the effectiveness, or non-effectiveness, of face masks. But that should not really be as surprising as it may at first glance seem to be because Lawrence Wright is a staff writer for The New Yorker who, beginning with 1979’s City Children, Country Summer, has produced a string of ten carefully researched nonfiction books. In the process, Wright won a Pulitzer for 2007’s The Looming Tower and a National Book Critics Circle Award for 2013’s Going Clear. Wright used those same research skills in preparation of The End of October, and it shows.“Disease was more powerful than armies. Disease was more arbitrary than terrorism. Disease was crueler than the human imagination.” (Page 22)
Dr. Henry Parsons first hears of the Kongoli virus at a “parliament of health officials” in Geneva, Switzerland. The next-to-last presentation of the last day of the conference focuses on an unusual cluster of forty-seven bloody deaths in a West Java refugee camp (although it turns out that the camp is actually a prison for Muslim homosexuals). Parsons does not believe the official Indonesian government explanation of the deaths, so he agrees to collect samples from the camp for further study before heading home to Atlanta. But as it turns out, he will not see Atlanta, his wife, or his two children again for a long, long time.
Within hours of his arrival in the squalid camp, Parsons is convinced that an unidentified virus is responsible for the horrendous deaths – and that he has made a terrible, perhaps fatal, mistake by not quarantining his driver before the man could drive away on his own. By the time the driver could be tracked down, he was on the hajj to Mecca along with millions of other devout Muslims. And now everything that can possibly go wrong, is about to. A highly contagious flu virus with a death rate of close to 50% is about to be unleashed on the world.
The second half of The End of October (which is a reference to the expected timing of the second wave of the virus) is more dystopian than the first half of the book. Just about the time that the virus seems to have passed its peak (the old flattening of the curve theory we are all so familiar with by now), “the lights go out” in the United States because the dictators in Russia, Iran, and North Korea (and perhaps others) decide that this is the perfect time to launch an all-out cyber-war against America. But as catastrophic as this second scenario is, it all feels a little rushed and somehow fails to pack the punch provided by the earlier part of Wright’s story.
Bottom Line: The End of October is one of those thrillers (cliché warning) pulled from today’s headlines and, as such, it can be nerve-rackingly scary to read this one at times. Wright’s story also includes concise accounts of the major pandemics that have plagued the world in the past and how those were either dealt with or played themselves out. It’s impossible to put a happy face on this one.
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LibraryThing member francoisvigneault
Lawrence Wright’s shockingly timely The End of October is definitely a page-turner, and I cranked through this one in just a few days, quite a bit faster than I usually do, but with ever-increasing exasperation and frustration as I got towards the end of the book. Wright starts off very strong
I was pretty much on board up to and including the scenes in a locked-down, quarantined Mecca full of 3 million hajj pilgrims… Up to that point the book was thrilling and realistic. Wright, who is rightly famed as a writer of muscular and entertaining non-fiction such as Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower and Going Clear, throws in plenty of historical tidbits and informational asides, but these don’t bog down the plot, and some of the fascinating true-life details he drops, like the death of the Russian biological weapons researcher Nikolai Ustinov after he was accidentally injected with the deadly Marburg virus, are sure to stick with me for years to come.
The same can’t be said for the fictional elements of the plot. This book, originally written as a screenplay, is less “Contagion” (i.e. realistic, sober, concerned with everyday heroes) and far more Inferno, an over-the-top, borderline sci-fi potboiler complete with an infallible protagonist with an outlandish tragic backstory, a silver-haired ecoterrorist super villain in a modernist lair, rather dull action, and more. By the time the ever-intrepid Dr. Parsons flees a plague- and war-stricken Saudi Arabia by way of nuclear submarine (amongst the many unbelievable elements of this novel is the fact that the US government (with the active cooperation of the Saudi royal family, no less) can’t manage airlift the preeminent virology expert in the world back to the States), the novel has moved to a realm of utter absurdity, and never turns back. Wright piles on the silly twists and reveals (which I won’t spoil here, but believe me, some of them are doozies), and the reader is left wondering what the point of this book is, in the end… Is this all some sort of crazed origin story for a sort of larger-than-life, post-apocalyptic, Jack Ryan-esque character or something? As the Kongoli virus raged, the world fell into chaos, and the (rather underdeveloped) sceondary characters started dropping like flies, I found myself a mix of bored and irritated.
The publication of this novel was (very savvily) moved up when the Covid-19 pandemic changed life around the world, and it seems like Wright was rushing a lot by the end of the book, with so many crucial moments occurring “off-camera” and so little resolution to any of the characters’ stories (what is the point of Tildy’s narrative? Of Helen’s? Jill’s? Teddy’s? At least the Saudi prince Majid gets to ride off into the sunset on camelback, a tragic nobleman to the end). I don’t need everything wrapped up with a little bow for me but this was a bit much.
I’ve heard that this novel was Wright’s attempt to write a possible backstory to the post-apocalyptic world of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, but the results are so far off from the level of quality, horror, and surprising humanity to be found in that masterwork (another book that I couldn’t put down and read at a breakneck pace). If the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has you wishing you knew a bit more about the history of pandemics writ large, Wright’s new book will definitely deliver, albeit wrapped up in an over-the-top thriller; a disposable airport read in a time of vanishingly few of us are flaying anywhere. If you want a more nuanced look at a fictional pandemic, I heartily recommend Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, an amazing film that is both sober and realistic and showcases a wide range of actors, both heroic and not, to give the reader a real sense of the the scale of a pandemic (a fave of mine, I had serendipitously rewatched it back in 2019 and again a few months into the Covid-19 lockdown… It definitely holds up). I’m happy that Wright, a quite good writer of non-fiction, is presumably getting rich(er) of his serendipitous release, but I also really hope he goes back to non-fiction from here on out.
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with something that’s obviously been solidly researched and given the current moment is unavoidably intriguing: A new, unknown virus (in this case a lethal strain of influenza of unknown and mysterious origin) is discovered in Asia before making its way around the world, throwing the globe into a state of panic. The setting is not the proverbial “fifteen minutes into the future” but quite obviously “right now,” the president and vice president, never named, couldn’t be more clearly modeled after the current holders of those offices (the VP comes off slightly better than the commander in chief, who suffers an on-camera breakdown that is both utterly over-the-top and the slightest bit satisfying). Dr. Harry Parsons, a heroic (but tortured!) virology expert from the Centers for Disease Control finds himself at ground zero, an internment camp for HIV patients in Kongoli, Indonesia. From there, the plot races forward, following Parsons as he chases the outbreak to Saudi Arabia and beyond.I was pretty much on board up to and including the scenes in a locked-down, quarantined Mecca full of 3 million hajj pilgrims… Up to that point the book was thrilling and realistic. Wright, who is rightly famed as a writer of muscular and entertaining non-fiction such as Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower and Going Clear, throws in plenty of historical tidbits and informational asides, but these don’t bog down the plot, and some of the fascinating true-life details he drops, like the death of the Russian biological weapons researcher Nikolai Ustinov after he was accidentally injected with the deadly Marburg virus, are sure to stick with me for years to come.
The same can’t be said for the fictional elements of the plot. This book, originally written as a screenplay, is less “Contagion” (i.e. realistic, sober, concerned with everyday heroes) and far more Inferno, an over-the-top, borderline sci-fi potboiler complete with an infallible protagonist with an outlandish tragic backstory, a silver-haired ecoterrorist super villain in a modernist lair, rather dull action, and more. By the time the ever-intrepid Dr. Parsons flees a plague- and war-stricken Saudi Arabia by way of nuclear submarine (amongst the many unbelievable elements of this novel is the fact that the US government (with the active cooperation of the Saudi royal family, no less) can’t manage airlift the preeminent virology expert in the world back to the States), the novel has moved to a realm of utter absurdity, and never turns back. Wright piles on the silly twists and reveals (which I won’t spoil here, but believe me, some of them are doozies), and the reader is left wondering what the point of this book is, in the end… Is this all some sort of crazed origin story for a sort of larger-than-life, post-apocalyptic, Jack Ryan-esque character or something? As the Kongoli virus raged, the world fell into chaos, and the (rather underdeveloped) sceondary characters started dropping like flies, I found myself a mix of bored and irritated.
The publication of this novel was (very savvily) moved up when the Covid-19 pandemic changed life around the world, and it seems like Wright was rushing a lot by the end of the book, with so many crucial moments occurring “off-camera” and so little resolution to any of the characters’ stories (what is the point of Tildy’s narrative? Of Helen’s? Jill’s? Teddy’s? At least the Saudi prince Majid gets to ride off into the sunset on camelback, a tragic nobleman to the end). I don’t need everything wrapped up with a little bow for me but this was a bit much.
I’ve heard that this novel was Wright’s attempt to write a possible backstory to the post-apocalyptic world of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, but the results are so far off from the level of quality, horror, and surprising humanity to be found in that masterwork (another book that I couldn’t put down and read at a breakneck pace). If the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has you wishing you knew a bit more about the history of pandemics writ large, Wright’s new book will definitely deliver, albeit wrapped up in an over-the-top thriller; a disposable airport read in a time of vanishingly few of us are flaying anywhere. If you want a more nuanced look at a fictional pandemic, I heartily recommend Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, an amazing film that is both sober and realistic and showcases a wide range of actors, both heroic and not, to give the reader a real sense of the the scale of a pandemic (a fave of mine, I had serendipitously rewatched it back in 2019 and again a few months into the Covid-19 lockdown… It definitely holds up). I’m happy that Wright, a quite good writer of non-fiction, is presumably getting rich(er) of his serendipitous release, but I also really hope he goes back to non-fiction from here on out.
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LibraryThing member gbelik
Exciting and timely.
LibraryThing member Ken-Me-Old-Mate
I'm reviewing this in the Covid-19 epedemic. I have also read Skin by Liam Brown which I'd recommend.
I came into this in a roundabout way that was not directly related to, or in response to this epidemic, it was just on the list from before now.
OK, I am in that much older, vulnerable age group and
Reading this book you can only think "prescience" or more accurately "PRESCIENCE" in very big letters. Irrespective of where you live, you will also be grateful that this virus is relatively benign.
The book deals with a deadly virus with a very high fatality rate. It doesn't dwell on the expected anarchy that you would get in a typical post-apoclyptic novel but the sequence of implosions is so unnervingly realistic, it is chilling.
Reading this, you wonder how much of it is already in place, and I am not talking about preparedness by adminstrations, (we've already seen how that would pan out in a more serious scenario) but preparedness by bad actors. That is either the Americans, Russians or Chinese depending on where you live, and it was here that I found it the most chilling. Having seen The Trump's spewing of lies and misdirection to cover his ineptitude you get a very real sense of how things would pan out.
But, I think the biggest thing it brings across is the sheer fragility of the systems that support us, systems that we not only take for granted but have no real idea how they work.
Having lived through the Christchurch Earthquakes, we had no power, which meant no mobile phone coverage,no ATMs, no petrol, and no water. Irrespective of how clever you and your neighbours may be, your first imperative is food, heat and shelter. I have read that London only ever has 7 meals on hand, the days of huge warehouses full of supplies is long in the past, the days of Just In Time (JIT) deliveries is how we live now.
There nothing earth shattering here, it's not literature (whatever that may be) but it is a very good book for the times we are living through now and will inevitably live through again, especially if this virus repeats what other viruses have done in the past by appearing first in a mild form, then coming back to really kick arse.
Also, let's not forget that the "Spanish Flu" began in Kansas but the power of disinformation has lasting value.
I came into this in a roundabout way that was not directly related to, or in response to this epidemic, it was just on the list from before now.
OK, I am in that much older, vulnerable age group and
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I live in New Zealand so we have had an easy ride of it. I am so deeply grateful that I don't live in Boristan or Trumpistan or any other dystopistan.Reading this book you can only think "prescience" or more accurately "PRESCIENCE" in very big letters. Irrespective of where you live, you will also be grateful that this virus is relatively benign.
The book deals with a deadly virus with a very high fatality rate. It doesn't dwell on the expected anarchy that you would get in a typical post-apoclyptic novel but the sequence of implosions is so unnervingly realistic, it is chilling.
Reading this, you wonder how much of it is already in place, and I am not talking about preparedness by adminstrations, (we've already seen how that would pan out in a more serious scenario) but preparedness by bad actors. That is either the Americans, Russians or Chinese depending on where you live, and it was here that I found it the most chilling. Having seen The Trump's spewing of lies and misdirection to cover his ineptitude you get a very real sense of how things would pan out.
But, I think the biggest thing it brings across is the sheer fragility of the systems that support us, systems that we not only take for granted but have no real idea how they work.
Having lived through the Christchurch Earthquakes, we had no power, which meant no mobile phone coverage,no ATMs, no petrol, and no water. Irrespective of how clever you and your neighbours may be, your first imperative is food, heat and shelter. I have read that London only ever has 7 meals on hand, the days of huge warehouses full of supplies is long in the past, the days of Just In Time (JIT) deliveries is how we live now.
There nothing earth shattering here, it's not literature (whatever that may be) but it is a very good book for the times we are living through now and will inevitably live through again, especially if this virus repeats what other viruses have done in the past by appearing first in a mild form, then coming back to really kick arse.
Also, let's not forget that the "Spanish Flu" began in Kansas but the power of disinformation has lasting value.
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LibraryThing member breic
I didn't have high expectations for this book, but read it because it is very apropos. It is not particularly good, but is readable, and it was fun to read Wright's imagination for what a global pandemic might look like. A lot of the technical parts are right on, though a few seem to be well off
At some points, I made the comparison to Michael Crichton, but I don't think Wright's characters or writing are ever as compelling as Crichton's best. I didn't at all mind Wright's occasional info-dumps, but the story never heated up into a thriller.
I'm giving it a high rating not because it is great, even for the genre, but because it is timely.
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(particularly the effort to develop a vaccine). I think the book is weakened because Wright brings in lots of other near-future ripped-from-the-headlines elements, too, from Iran versus Saudi Arabia, to Russian aggression, to biowar, animal de-extinction, … Not only is some of this implausible, but it makes Wright's job that much harder. It is already nearly impossible for one novel to convey a global event. Wright tries to do it by tracking only one or a few characters (like Stephen King's "The Stand," or Malka Ann Older's "Infomocracy"), and the scale is just off; you can't cram an event affecting billions of people into the narrative following a mere handful. Here the main character invents viruses, cures viruses, meets various world leaders, is on scene at every important development, …, with tons more wild coincidences. It doesn't make sense. In "World War Z," Max Brooks gave up the idea of following main characters, and that approach worked better for showing the scale of the pandemic, but it also sacrificed key parts of a novel (character development, plot). At some points, I made the comparison to Michael Crichton, but I don't think Wright's characters or writing are ever as compelling as Crichton's best. I didn't at all mind Wright's occasional info-dumps, but the story never heated up into a thriller.
I'm giving it a high rating not because it is great, even for the genre, but because it is timely.
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LibraryThing member indygo88
American CDC epidemiologist Henry Parsons is called to investigate a mysterious disease outbreak in Indonesia. However, before the disease can be researched and identified, it has already spread worldwide. Because of the outbreak and subsequent lockdown of the world, Henry is unable to get back to
I originally heard about this book before its actual release, back in April 2020 on one of the morning shows. It and its author, Lawrence Wright, were being featured because of its obvious timeliness with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Though the book was actually written in 2019, the parallels to what's going on today are eerily similar. Wright certainly has done his research and the first portion of the book really hit home. I kept nodding my head and thinking, "Wow, yeah.....that's exactly what's going on now." However, I was less gripped by the book as I progressed through it. It's written more as a thriller, with an underlying political theme. And while I more often than not enjoy books of that genre if they're written well, that just wasn't what I was hoping for in this novel. The writing was just "okay"..... there was a lot of jumping around and abrupt transitioning between chapters. I think I was looking for more of the humanity aspect of the disease progression, and it just wasn't there. I've not read any other of Wright's works, though he mostly writes non-fiction, and I'm guessing that's where his strong suit lies. I can't say I'm sold on his fiction. However, it certainly is a timely release and it should make for a good book club discussion.
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his family in Atlanta. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is convinced that Russia is behind the outbreak, and war bubbles on the horizon.I originally heard about this book before its actual release, back in April 2020 on one of the morning shows. It and its author, Lawrence Wright, were being featured because of its obvious timeliness with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Though the book was actually written in 2019, the parallels to what's going on today are eerily similar. Wright certainly has done his research and the first portion of the book really hit home. I kept nodding my head and thinking, "Wow, yeah.....that's exactly what's going on now." However, I was less gripped by the book as I progressed through it. It's written more as a thriller, with an underlying political theme. And while I more often than not enjoy books of that genre if they're written well, that just wasn't what I was hoping for in this novel. The writing was just "okay"..... there was a lot of jumping around and abrupt transitioning between chapters. I think I was looking for more of the humanity aspect of the disease progression, and it just wasn't there. I've not read any other of Wright's works, though he mostly writes non-fiction, and I'm guessing that's where his strong suit lies. I can't say I'm sold on his fiction. However, it certainly is a timely release and it should make for a good book club discussion.
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LibraryThing member JanicsEblen
An Excellent read.
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
I'm one of those weird people who choose to read books set during pandemics while we were in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic (or in this case listened to them). It actually made me feel better about what we were experiencing because things like the Black Death or the Spanish Flu pandemics were
Dr. Henry Parsons works for the CDC in Atlanta where he is in charge of a lab that explores deadly viruses. He is happily married with two children but they remained behind in Atlanta when he attended a meeting in Geneva. While there news of a viral outbreak in a refugee camp in Indonesia is received and he goes to investigate. He finds that the MSF doctors working in the camp have all died of a hemorraghic illness that appears to be unlike any ever seen in the world. Parsons orders the camp sealed off and he personally goes into isolation in the camp until he has been symptom free for two weeks. Unfortunately the cab driver who drove him to the camp has left Indonesia to go on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that ever devout Muslim must take. Parsons is concerned that he will have been exposed to the virus and will transmit it to all the pilgrims. So he travels to Saudi Arabia where he convinces the ruler to lock down Mecca as signs of the illness have emerged there. There is also a restriction on anyone leaving the country which means that Parsons is again kept from returning home. Despite these measures the virus spreads to other parts of the world including the USA.Parsons convinces his wife to take the children to her sister's farm but when the first wave dissipates she returns to her job as a teacher. Soon a second wave hits with even more devastating results (sounds familiar). Parsons eventually manages to leave Saudi Arabia on a US submarine that is headed back to Georgia but they have the virus on board. Parsons manages to formulate an inoculation based upon using viral particles from dying patients that he first tests out on himself. He gets very ill but survives and when he finally does make it back to the CDC they are ecstatic that he has found a way to prevent the virus because no vaccine has been developed. Against all of this there are increasing tensions between Russia and the US. The president of the United States is so obviously based upon Trump as he has "his own cosmetology room and tanning bed in the White House (not to mention a horde of querulous, entitled adult children)" (quote from review in the Atlantic). There are signs that this virus may be the result of biological warfare of Russian origins something that Parsons has familiarity with as he worked for a top-secret lab that developed biological weapons before he went to the CDC. In all things do not look good for the world but Parsons and his family might survive.
That review in the Atlantic that I quoted mentioned that Wright came up with this book when director Ridley Scott asked him what would have to happen to result in a world as foreseen by Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Given that Wright had finished this book before we knew about Covid-19 it's a prescient novel.
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contained only when enough people had died or survived the illness that there was crowd immunity. And in this book the flu combined with warfare is so much worse than our experience. So if you want a vision of how much worse this could have been check out Wright's version of a pandemic.Dr. Henry Parsons works for the CDC in Atlanta where he is in charge of a lab that explores deadly viruses. He is happily married with two children but they remained behind in Atlanta when he attended a meeting in Geneva. While there news of a viral outbreak in a refugee camp in Indonesia is received and he goes to investigate. He finds that the MSF doctors working in the camp have all died of a hemorraghic illness that appears to be unlike any ever seen in the world. Parsons orders the camp sealed off and he personally goes into isolation in the camp until he has been symptom free for two weeks. Unfortunately the cab driver who drove him to the camp has left Indonesia to go on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that ever devout Muslim must take. Parsons is concerned that he will have been exposed to the virus and will transmit it to all the pilgrims. So he travels to Saudi Arabia where he convinces the ruler to lock down Mecca as signs of the illness have emerged there. There is also a restriction on anyone leaving the country which means that Parsons is again kept from returning home. Despite these measures the virus spreads to other parts of the world including the USA.Parsons convinces his wife to take the children to her sister's farm but when the first wave dissipates she returns to her job as a teacher. Soon a second wave hits with even more devastating results (sounds familiar). Parsons eventually manages to leave Saudi Arabia on a US submarine that is headed back to Georgia but they have the virus on board. Parsons manages to formulate an inoculation based upon using viral particles from dying patients that he first tests out on himself. He gets very ill but survives and when he finally does make it back to the CDC they are ecstatic that he has found a way to prevent the virus because no vaccine has been developed. Against all of this there are increasing tensions between Russia and the US. The president of the United States is so obviously based upon Trump as he has "his own cosmetology room and tanning bed in the White House (not to mention a horde of querulous, entitled adult children)" (quote from review in the Atlantic). There are signs that this virus may be the result of biological warfare of Russian origins something that Parsons has familiarity with as he worked for a top-secret lab that developed biological weapons before he went to the CDC. In all things do not look good for the world but Parsons and his family might survive.
That review in the Atlantic that I quoted mentioned that Wright came up with this book when director Ridley Scott asked him what would have to happen to result in a world as foreseen by Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Given that Wright had finished this book before we knew about Covid-19 it's a prescient novel.
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LibraryThing member Tower_Bob
Good, not great. Too panoramic and unbelievable.
LibraryThing member ozzer
This is definitely not a feel-good book to read during a pandemic. However, this dark novel is extremely well-researched and thus full of good information about viruses, pandemics, history, and the heroic people who dedicate their lives to protecting us from such things. The early stages of
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Wright’s pandemic accurately evoke current events. Nevertheless, the latter part of the book becomes quite surreal suggesting that collapse may carry much, much more devastation than we can anticipate if we are not vigilant. Unfortunately, the plot feeds conspiracy theories at the expense of more realistic natural mechanisms. This is understandable, since the novel is a thriller after all. It would be unfair to reveal the side of this argument Wright finally comes down on, so one needs to suspend disbelief until the bitter end. Show Less
LibraryThing member midwestms
Foretells some things that happened during our pandemic though written earlier.
LibraryThing member ecataldi
This book reminded me so much of the first part of Stephen King's The Stand. It was riveting! Even though it was very science heavy, I really enjoyed this book. After living through covid - it felt very real and possible. A microbiologist dismisses one of his colleagues findings about an odd virus
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that played itself out in an internment camp in Indonesia. Henry Parsons decides to make a quick trip out there himself to see what's going on. What he finds instead is a hot zone - a hot zone that will soon cripple the whole world and bring the super powers close to launching all out war. The story follows the spread of the virus and the escalation of war. It gets a little slow towards the end and I had no idea how the book would finish it - but I enjoyed it. Listening to suspenseful music while reading this - definitely help put me on edge! Show Less
LibraryThing member Lisa2013
A book about a pandemic might seem as though it’s too close to home but this was a fun romp for me. I love these types of books. They remind me of when I read a lot of Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, etc. books.
Even during a terrifying pandemic, I still enjoy medical thrillers, even this one about
Great characters about whose fate I cared, including the antiheroes.
Though the reader is told Americans are panicking and the virus is spreading at first it didn’t seem that way but then everything unfolds and it does so in what I think is a brilliant way. I really, really, really enjoyed the book.
It’s eerie. Most of the time it seemed more like (today’s) non-fiction than fiction. Between covid-19 and the even more dire sixth mass extinction event (and NTHE – near term human extinction) issues due to human caused climate change, including expected pandemics and societal breakdown, I felt as though I could be looking at our not too distant future.
It was very well done. It’s very satisfying throughout, beginning, middle, flashbacks, and ending.
I definitely recommend this book to people who enjoy medical thrillers and fact based speculative fiction.
Even during a terrifying pandemic, I still enjoy medical thrillers, even this one about
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a pandemic. Great characters about whose fate I cared, including the antiheroes.
Though the reader is told Americans are panicking and the virus is spreading at first it didn’t seem that way but then everything unfolds and it does so in what I think is a brilliant way. I really, really, really enjoyed the book.
It’s eerie. Most of the time it seemed more like (today’s) non-fiction than fiction. Between covid-19 and the even more dire sixth mass extinction event (and NTHE – near term human extinction) issues due to human caused climate change, including expected pandemics and societal breakdown, I felt as though I could be looking at our not too distant future.
It was very well done. It’s very satisfying throughout, beginning, middle, flashbacks, and ending.
I definitely recommend this book to people who enjoy medical thrillers and fact based speculative fiction.
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LibraryThing member writemoves
The End of October is a novel that incorporates the following elements = Horror Story Political Novel Family’s fight for survival Cautionary Tale.
This novel was written and published before the Covid 19 pandemic and what’s most surprising is how the author has eerily forecasted many of the
I have read two other non-fiction books by Wright: Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David and The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Those books, like this novel, are excellent.
The background of this book includes the following: Global pandemic (Kongoli) that kills hundreds of millions of people…no cures, no vaccines…famine worldwide…Middle East war between Saudi Arabia And Iran…terrorist attacks by religious fanatics…cyber warfare between the United States and Russia that destroys each nation’s infrastructure and economies…economic depression, fallen governments worldwide…
It’s not a pleasant read or a feel good story. One can easily imagine the parade of horribles that could happen under those events. Panic. Hospitals overwhelmed. Government ineffective. (Philadelphia becomes the first U.S. hotspot in this novel).
Within all this chaos is epidemiologist Henry Parsons desperately trying to develop a vaccine, stay alive (he has more adventures and near death experiences than Indiana Jones) and find a way to get back to the United States and save his wife and two children.
For me, the book had a slow start but quickly became a page turner after the fourth or fifth chapter. There is also an unexpected surprise finding at the end of the book.
One of the two or three best novels I have read in 2020…
This novel was written and published before the Covid 19 pandemic and what’s most surprising is how the author has eerily forecasted many of the
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events and issues that we are experiencing now. (He even predicted the U.S. Vice President being in charge of the pandemic task force and failing.)I have read two other non-fiction books by Wright: Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David and The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Those books, like this novel, are excellent.
The background of this book includes the following: Global pandemic (Kongoli) that kills hundreds of millions of people…no cures, no vaccines…famine worldwide…Middle East war between Saudi Arabia And Iran…terrorist attacks by religious fanatics…cyber warfare between the United States and Russia that destroys each nation’s infrastructure and economies…economic depression, fallen governments worldwide…
It’s not a pleasant read or a feel good story. One can easily imagine the parade of horribles that could happen under those events. Panic. Hospitals overwhelmed. Government ineffective. (Philadelphia becomes the first U.S. hotspot in this novel).
Within all this chaos is epidemiologist Henry Parsons desperately trying to develop a vaccine, stay alive (he has more adventures and near death experiences than Indiana Jones) and find a way to get back to the United States and save his wife and two children.
For me, the book had a slow start but quickly became a page turner after the fourth or fifth chapter. There is also an unexpected surprise finding at the end of the book.
One of the two or three best novels I have read in 2020…
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LibraryThing member proustitute
... shelter in place, wash your hands, don’t go out in public unless vitally necessary, and, if you do, wear a mask and sanitary gloves…
Was this just the way it was going to be—the powerful, the rich, and the celebrated would be saved… Of course this was how it was bound to be. This is the
If we weren’t currently living through this novel’s speculative world of a global coronavirus pandemic, I’m not really sure Lawrence Wright’s The End of October would be of much interest: the characters are one-dimensional; the plot meanders, with long diatribes on infectious diseases, historical and research examples; and there are too many threads Wright attempts to weave together—the pandemic, conflict in the Middle East, the United States’ tense relationship with Russia—which seem to go nowhere in the end.
But this is not the sort of novel that requires the reader to care about its characters, or their fates. It holds readers’ interests simply because we’re currently in the same situation as the characters are; while some may prefer escapist literature during a time like this, others are consoled by fact—there’s a reason why Dr. Anthony Fauci is something of a national treasure right now in America. And this is the strength of Wright’s work, which speaks more to his skill in research and his background as a journalist than his nonexistent talent as a novelist: he provides us with facts, with historical examples, studies done in 1918 with the so-called Spanish flu, examples from the Ebola outbreak. While mainstream news has made and drawn such parallels, it’s in a more general sense; Wright provides a lot of case studies, precarious treatments histories, and situates his imagined coronavirus pandemic within such factual and epidemiological truths.
Had The End of October been published at another point in time, without COVID-19 causing global panic, anxiety, and stress, I doubt it would be receiving as much press as it currently is. The timing of the book’s publication is eerie and prescient, but it’s also reassuring just as it’s terrifying, and one who takes comfort in facts will find Wright’s novel the perfect read for our current times. Read it for the history of epidemics and pandemics, for the facts and historical information in which it is so well steeped; as a novel, however, it fails, but the nonfictional aspects are necessary to us all right now.
If anyone should write the history of COVID-19 once (when?) this is all over, Wright should be the one: he damn well knows his stuff.
Was this just the way it was going to be—the powerful, the rich, and the celebrated would be saved… Of course this was how it was bound to be. This is the
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country we’ve become.If we weren’t currently living through this novel’s speculative world of a global coronavirus pandemic, I’m not really sure Lawrence Wright’s The End of October would be of much interest: the characters are one-dimensional; the plot meanders, with long diatribes on infectious diseases, historical and research examples; and there are too many threads Wright attempts to weave together—the pandemic, conflict in the Middle East, the United States’ tense relationship with Russia—which seem to go nowhere in the end.
But this is not the sort of novel that requires the reader to care about its characters, or their fates. It holds readers’ interests simply because we’re currently in the same situation as the characters are; while some may prefer escapist literature during a time like this, others are consoled by fact—there’s a reason why Dr. Anthony Fauci is something of a national treasure right now in America. And this is the strength of Wright’s work, which speaks more to his skill in research and his background as a journalist than his nonexistent talent as a novelist: he provides us with facts, with historical examples, studies done in 1918 with the so-called Spanish flu, examples from the Ebola outbreak. While mainstream news has made and drawn such parallels, it’s in a more general sense; Wright provides a lot of case studies, precarious treatments histories, and situates his imagined coronavirus pandemic within such factual and epidemiological truths.
Had The End of October been published at another point in time, without COVID-19 causing global panic, anxiety, and stress, I doubt it would be receiving as much press as it currently is. The timing of the book’s publication is eerie and prescient, but it’s also reassuring just as it’s terrifying, and one who takes comfort in facts will find Wright’s novel the perfect read for our current times. Read it for the history of epidemics and pandemics, for the facts and historical information in which it is so well steeped; as a novel, however, it fails, but the nonfictional aspects are necessary to us all right now.
If anyone should write the history of COVID-19 once (when?) this is all over, Wright should be the one: he damn well knows his stuff.
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LibraryThing member arosoff
This is a solid thriller. Wright isn't a natural novelist--there's some clunky dialogue. What he is is a painstaking researcher, and the scenario is far too believable. He gets both the science and the politics right, in careful detail.
I honestly can't recommend reading this at the moment,
I honestly can't recommend reading this at the moment,
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however. Wright was either the luckiest or unluckiest writer alive to have had this book come out now. Show Less
LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
The End of October, Lawrence Wright, author, Mark Bramhall, narrator
Henry Parsons is a scientist at a medical conference. He is asked to investigate the strange outbreak of a fast-spreading virus, with a very high and consequential mortality rate, in a gay internment camp in Indonesia. He must find
What follows is a tale of espionage, social conflict, as well as personal and government corruption, that is sometimes over the top, as Henry travels the globe to pursue his research into a devastating virus that is endangering the entire world. He is depicted as a man with a physical disability who somehow manages to overcome and survive many disasters like bombings in Saudi Arabia, quarantines in Indonesia and the logistics of getting around when transportation stops. He manages to travel safely, though others more fit and able, cannot. Fossil fuel and electric power is non-existent for most, and the internet and cell service no longer operate, still, he manages to function and survive. Orphans are living on the street, gangs proliferate and the government and military, while still operating, are in a shambles. Many things will have to be rebuilt from the bottom up.
The book is thoroughly researched with the history of previous pandemics and catastrophes well-covered. For example, lost civilizations and the extinction of dinosaurs, are some of the things that are documented. Those who were involved in saving nations and people, studying enigmas and providing solutions are most definitely real and worth following up for more information. In addition to discussing the use of vaccines and other scientific treatments, he includes the dangerous side effects, not only of the drugs but of the research on them.
The book highlights the conditions that make pandemics arise, the frequency with which they arise, the reaction to them and the study of them and their causes. Is it a new virus or an old one, a known or unknown pathogen? Scientists often look with a cold eye at subjects which deeply and negatively affect society, in their need to do research. They ignore the possible death and destruction that might follow the outbreak of an unknown disease or novel virus resulting from their experiments and desire to study or create them. The author also includes an espionage angle in this book, along with the human one, that looks to protect society with vaccines and medications, indicating that our enemies may be engaging in biological research aimed at limiting the earth’s population or gaining ascendancy on the world stage. People, governments and corporations are all capable of engaging in greed, selfishness and cruelty to promote their own corrupt behavior and dreams of world leadership and control. Negative consequences are often dismissed by those involved, since those engaging in these disdainful behaviors, by definition, are often exempt from the results of their criminality and barbaric designs. They always have a failsafe option.
So, as the author describes how those in charge of dealing with an unexpected and large outbreak of an unknown disease, capable of killing millions, if not wiping out the entire population, engage in behavior to delay a response because of optics or how it might affect the economy or tourism of their countries, we the readers watch as the world descends into chaos and the social structure begins to unravel. Ensuing collapses of governments, bodies piling up in the morgue, hospitals being overrun, do not concern them. They do not think of the what happens when all we depend upon in society begins to fail. People will die or panic, no one will work, no one will provide food, supermarkets will cease to service us, power grids will fail, starvation will ensue, as well as other diseases since medication, doctors, hospitals and other caregivers will disappear, as well banks and other industries that provide the services we depend upon to survive. Schools will close, millions will die leaving their children alone and uncared for, and society will regress.
This novel is written with an eye to the future, and is also about the consequences of the actions of unscrupulous scientists, politicians and corporate leaders, at the expense of ordinary people who do not fare as well. I don’t believe that the author realized, at the time he began writing, just how prescient his novel would be; now, however, in the world we have all experienced, since its publication, he, and we his readers, are well aware of how right on target his book seemed to be. However there are some ideas that I found to be questionable.
Wright seems to subtly place the blame for any debacle associated with the pandemic on the right side of the political spectrum. He refers to the Washington Post and the idea that regular people like those working for that publication, suffered more, and did not survive as well as the elites. Several negative views about Jews are also presented in the book. Why the attention to Jews, and also Christians, surviving his imagined pandemic at the expense of others. Was it meant to be political in nature? His view of Islam seems to be largely peaceful with the Koran featured as one of the few things Henry still possesses, in the end. Since I am a Jew, I felt uncomfortable with the implication of some of the narrative. He includes a Russian Jewish woman, Tildy, who dreams of the assassination of Russia’s leader or even its citizens, as she imagines the country’s destruction. When our own real and recent pandemic is analyzed, and the consequences are examined, we will see that the blame for much of the negative results of how we fared, may actually be placed squarely on the broad shoulders of those that supported policies regarding vaccine mandates, school closings and the shutting down of economies entirely, ideas pushed by certain politicians, certain corporations and by messages from scientists, each of them possibly out only for themselves regarding profit and fame. I hope we have a more positive outcome than the one in the book, if we have to face another pandemic.
Henry Parsons is a scientist at a medical conference. He is asked to investigate the strange outbreak of a fast-spreading virus, with a very high and consequential mortality rate, in a gay internment camp in Indonesia. He must find
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out if it can spread into the community at large, if it comes from outside a lab, is a biological weapon, or is the result of an accidental lab release. He will investigate and find out if it is spread human to human or from animal, fish or insect, etc., to other humans as it jumped from a particular species. Is it manmade, does it occur naturally in science, does it affect all victims in the same way? Do some survive, and if so why? Instead of returning home to his wife Jill, and children Helen and Teddy, he answers the call of scientist when she asks him to look into these deaths that have been so quietly and easily dismissed, in order to protect the fragile economy of Indonesia.What follows is a tale of espionage, social conflict, as well as personal and government corruption, that is sometimes over the top, as Henry travels the globe to pursue his research into a devastating virus that is endangering the entire world. He is depicted as a man with a physical disability who somehow manages to overcome and survive many disasters like bombings in Saudi Arabia, quarantines in Indonesia and the logistics of getting around when transportation stops. He manages to travel safely, though others more fit and able, cannot. Fossil fuel and electric power is non-existent for most, and the internet and cell service no longer operate, still, he manages to function and survive. Orphans are living on the street, gangs proliferate and the government and military, while still operating, are in a shambles. Many things will have to be rebuilt from the bottom up.
The book is thoroughly researched with the history of previous pandemics and catastrophes well-covered. For example, lost civilizations and the extinction of dinosaurs, are some of the things that are documented. Those who were involved in saving nations and people, studying enigmas and providing solutions are most definitely real and worth following up for more information. In addition to discussing the use of vaccines and other scientific treatments, he includes the dangerous side effects, not only of the drugs but of the research on them.
The book highlights the conditions that make pandemics arise, the frequency with which they arise, the reaction to them and the study of them and their causes. Is it a new virus or an old one, a known or unknown pathogen? Scientists often look with a cold eye at subjects which deeply and negatively affect society, in their need to do research. They ignore the possible death and destruction that might follow the outbreak of an unknown disease or novel virus resulting from their experiments and desire to study or create them. The author also includes an espionage angle in this book, along with the human one, that looks to protect society with vaccines and medications, indicating that our enemies may be engaging in biological research aimed at limiting the earth’s population or gaining ascendancy on the world stage. People, governments and corporations are all capable of engaging in greed, selfishness and cruelty to promote their own corrupt behavior and dreams of world leadership and control. Negative consequences are often dismissed by those involved, since those engaging in these disdainful behaviors, by definition, are often exempt from the results of their criminality and barbaric designs. They always have a failsafe option.
So, as the author describes how those in charge of dealing with an unexpected and large outbreak of an unknown disease, capable of killing millions, if not wiping out the entire population, engage in behavior to delay a response because of optics or how it might affect the economy or tourism of their countries, we the readers watch as the world descends into chaos and the social structure begins to unravel. Ensuing collapses of governments, bodies piling up in the morgue, hospitals being overrun, do not concern them. They do not think of the what happens when all we depend upon in society begins to fail. People will die or panic, no one will work, no one will provide food, supermarkets will cease to service us, power grids will fail, starvation will ensue, as well as other diseases since medication, doctors, hospitals and other caregivers will disappear, as well banks and other industries that provide the services we depend upon to survive. Schools will close, millions will die leaving their children alone and uncared for, and society will regress.
This novel is written with an eye to the future, and is also about the consequences of the actions of unscrupulous scientists, politicians and corporate leaders, at the expense of ordinary people who do not fare as well. I don’t believe that the author realized, at the time he began writing, just how prescient his novel would be; now, however, in the world we have all experienced, since its publication, he, and we his readers, are well aware of how right on target his book seemed to be. However there are some ideas that I found to be questionable.
Wright seems to subtly place the blame for any debacle associated with the pandemic on the right side of the political spectrum. He refers to the Washington Post and the idea that regular people like those working for that publication, suffered more, and did not survive as well as the elites. Several negative views about Jews are also presented in the book. Why the attention to Jews, and also Christians, surviving his imagined pandemic at the expense of others. Was it meant to be political in nature? His view of Islam seems to be largely peaceful with the Koran featured as one of the few things Henry still possesses, in the end. Since I am a Jew, I felt uncomfortable with the implication of some of the narrative. He includes a Russian Jewish woman, Tildy, who dreams of the assassination of Russia’s leader or even its citizens, as she imagines the country’s destruction. When our own real and recent pandemic is analyzed, and the consequences are examined, we will see that the blame for much of the negative results of how we fared, may actually be placed squarely on the broad shoulders of those that supported policies regarding vaccine mandates, school closings and the shutting down of economies entirely, ideas pushed by certain politicians, certain corporations and by messages from scientists, each of them possibly out only for themselves regarding profit and fame. I hope we have a more positive outcome than the one in the book, if we have to face another pandemic.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tuusannuuska
This one's a little difficult to review (and rate). On the one hand, the topic is so damn relevant and as such so very interesting. I also really enjoyed the less than subtle digs at current politics and the handling of the current pandemic and other issues. On the other, the story itself was only
I'm not a fan of the writing, which is naturally just a matter of preference. By no means was this poorly written, just not my cup of tea on several fronts. The ending also felt very hurried and pasted on.
The writing (and the main character) brought to mind Dan Brown and Michael Crichton. The story telling felt detached, even though there was an obvious attempt to bring "the human element" into it. A lot of this read more like a report on events than a novel (not structurally, but stylistically), which in turn made me not care all that much about anything (or anyone).
The main character was a little too central to everything, which made this feel all kinds of unrealistic (hence, the Dan Brown vibes) and I didn't really get much out of him, personality wise. I feel like the most interesting character was the main characters daughter Helen, and even she was mainly just a device to underline the harshness of everyday survival during a global pandemic (of a more severe magnitude).
Another thing I don't enjoy about books, is unnecessarily disjointed narratives. Most of the book took place in present day, but here and there (without warning) the story took a leap back into some more or less relevant point in the main characters past. I get what the author was trying to accomplish with this choice, I simply do not enjoy it when there's no real benefit from it.
It's definitely a good time to publish a book about a global pandemic, considering how close we were to events of this magnitude, but I wish the publisher would have been more patient and pushed to publication to next year (and had instead gone for at least one more round of editing.) The ending definitely feels like it was done in a hurry, and it could have been improved in execution without altering the actual events that took place.
This was still a pretty entertaining read so I'm not sad that I read it. So basically "I'm not mad at you Book, I'm just really disappointed."
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an okay one. I'm not a fan of the writing, which is naturally just a matter of preference. By no means was this poorly written, just not my cup of tea on several fronts. The ending also felt very hurried and pasted on.
The writing (and the main character) brought to mind Dan Brown and Michael Crichton. The story telling felt detached, even though there was an obvious attempt to bring "the human element" into it. A lot of this read more like a report on events than a novel (not structurally, but stylistically), which in turn made me not care all that much about anything (or anyone).
The main character was a little too central to everything, which made this feel all kinds of unrealistic (hence, the Dan Brown vibes) and I didn't really get much out of him, personality wise. I feel like the most interesting character was the main characters daughter Helen, and even she was mainly just a device to underline the harshness of everyday survival during a global pandemic (of a more severe magnitude).
Another thing I don't enjoy about books, is unnecessarily disjointed narratives. Most of the book took place in present day, but here and there (without warning) the story took a leap back into some more or less relevant point in the main characters past. I get what the author was trying to accomplish with this choice, I simply do not enjoy it when there's no real benefit from it.
It's definitely a good time to publish a book about a global pandemic, considering how close we were to events of this magnitude, but I wish the publisher would have been more patient and pushed to publication to next year (and had instead gone for at least one more round of editing.) The ending definitely feels like it was done in a hurry, and it could have been improved in execution without altering the actual events that took place.
This was still a pretty entertaining read so I'm not sad that I read it. So basically "I'm not mad at you Book, I'm just really disappointed."
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Awards
Philosophical Society of Texas Book Prize (Honorable Mention — 2020)
ISBN
0525658653 / 9780525658658