When This Is Over: Reflections on an Unequal Pandemic

by Amy Cortvriend (editor), Lucy Easthope (Editor), Jenny Edkins (Editor)

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound and persistent impact – a tragic loss of life, changes to established patterns of life and social inequalities laid bare. It brought out the good in many and the worst in others, and raised questions around what is truly important in our lives.
In this book, academics, activists and artists come together to remember, and to reflect on, the pandemic. What lessons should we learn? How can things be different when this is over?
Sensitive to inequalities of gender, race and class, the book highlights the experience of marginalised and minority groups, and the unjust and uneven spread of violence, deprivation and death. It combines academic analysis with personal testimonies, poetry and images from contributors including Sue Black, Led By Donkeys, Lara-Rose Iredale, Michael Rosen and Gary Younge.
This truly inclusive commemorative overview honours the experience of a global disaster lived up close, and suggests the steps needed to ensure we do better next time.

326 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 14, 2023

Reviews

[Richard Kemp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one for work, to discuss on the Transforming Society podcast. It really did impress me — especially the breadth of styles from academia and journalism to memoir, poetry and a Twitter thread. If you want to better understand the inequalities that were revealed during the peak COVID years, and you want to read this from a variety of voices, then this is the book for you.

[mza · Rating 5 out of 5]

my mom wrote the poem at the end (and her sister did the drawing with it)