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The End of October
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Science Fiction (2020)In this riveting 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, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--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 prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city . . . A Russian émigré, a woman who has risen to 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 fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.
At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--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 prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city . . . A Russian émigré, a woman who has risen to 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 fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.
379 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 28, 2020
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About the author
Lawrence Wright
81 books2,427 followersLawrence Wright is an author, screenwriter, playwright, and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. He has won a Pulitzer Prize and three National Magazine Awards.
His latest book, The Human Scale , is a sweeping, timely thriller, in which a Palestinian-American FBI agent teams up with a hardline Israeli cop to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza. According to The New York Times, “Wright succeeds in this complex, deeply felt work.”
He is the author of 11 nonfiction books. His book about the rise of al-Qaeda, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Knopf, 2006), was published to immediate and widespread acclaim. It has been translated into 25 languages and won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It was made into a series for Hulu in 2018, starring Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, and Tahar Rahim.
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (Knopf, 2013) was a New York Times bestseller. Wright and director Alex Gibney turned it into an HBO documentary, which won three Emmys, including best documentary. Wright and Gibney also teamed up to produce another Emmy-winning documentary, for Showtime, about the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
In addition to The Human Scale, Wright has three other novels: Noriega: God’s Favorite (Simon and Schuster, 2000) which was made into a Showtime movie starring Bob Hoskins; The End of October (Knopf, 2020), a bestseller about a viral pandemic that came out right at the beginning of COVID; Mr. Texas (Knopf, 2023), which has been optioned as a limited streaming series.
In 2006, Wright premiered his first one-man play, “My Trip to Al-Qaeda,” at The New Yorker Festival, which led to a sold-out six-week run off-Broadway, before traveling to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. It was made into a documentary film of the same name, directed by Alex Gibney, for HBO.
Before he wrote the novel, Wright wrote and performed a one-man show also called The Human Scale, about the standoff between Israel and Hamas over the abduction of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. The Public Theater in New York produced the play, which ran for a month off-Broadway in 2010, before moving to the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. Many of the ideas developed in that play later evolved into the novel of the same name, published 15 years later.
In addition to his one-man productions, Wright has written five other plays that have enjoyed productions around the country, including Camp David, about the Carter, Begin, and Sadat summit in 1978; and Cleo, about the making of the movie Cleopatra.
Wright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Society of American Historians, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also serves as the keyboard player in the Austin-based blues band, WhoDo.
His latest book, The Human Scale , is a sweeping, timely thriller, in which a Palestinian-American FBI agent teams up with a hardline Israeli cop to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza. According to The New York Times, “Wright succeeds in this complex, deeply felt work.”
He is the author of 11 nonfiction books. His book about the rise of al-Qaeda, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Knopf, 2006), was published to immediate and widespread acclaim. It has been translated into 25 languages and won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It was made into a series for Hulu in 2018, starring Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, and Tahar Rahim.
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (Knopf, 2013) was a New York Times bestseller. Wright and director Alex Gibney turned it into an HBO documentary, which won three Emmys, including best documentary. Wright and Gibney also teamed up to produce another Emmy-winning documentary, for Showtime, about the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
In addition to The Human Scale, Wright has three other novels: Noriega: God’s Favorite (Simon and Schuster, 2000) which was made into a Showtime movie starring Bob Hoskins; The End of October (Knopf, 2020), a bestseller about a viral pandemic that came out right at the beginning of COVID; Mr. Texas (Knopf, 2023), which has been optioned as a limited streaming series.
In 2006, Wright premiered his first one-man play, “My Trip to Al-Qaeda,” at The New Yorker Festival, which led to a sold-out six-week run off-Broadway, before traveling to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. It was made into a documentary film of the same name, directed by Alex Gibney, for HBO.
Before he wrote the novel, Wright wrote and performed a one-man show also called The Human Scale, about the standoff between Israel and Hamas over the abduction of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. The Public Theater in New York produced the play, which ran for a month off-Broadway in 2010, before moving to the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. Many of the ideas developed in that play later evolved into the novel of the same name, published 15 years later.
In addition to his one-man productions, Wright has written five other plays that have enjoyed productions around the country, including Camp David, about the Carter, Begin, and Sadat summit in 1978; and Cleo, about the making of the movie Cleopatra.
Wright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Society of American Historians, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also serves as the keyboard player in the Austin-based blues band, WhoDo.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,084 reviews
May 5, 2020
There may be spoilers ahead.
I will say that a lot of research went into this book. This is not a lazily written book but it is poorly written. Sometimes, when a writer does a lot of research and wants the reader to know they are a credible expert on their subject, they make fiction seem like nonfiction. If you want a primer on pandemics (TIMELY), then sure, this book offers something useful. The problem is that there are just pages upon pages of what are, essentially, lectures on pandemics, vaccines, biological warfare, US Russian relations, etc.
It's interesting that this book was written well before the coronavirus because so much of it is prescient. Wright did a good job of anticipating what might happen in a global pandemic and unfortunately, much of what he predicts as part of the novel's plot, is already happening.
There are some ludicrous plot holes. The protagonist, Henry, is one of the most important epidemiologists in the world and no government can get him a flight back to the US? Really? He works for the CDC, and again, is super important, but he can't make sure his family is secure? Sometimes his disability gets in the way, sometimes it is completely forgotten in the narrative. He pretends to convert to Islam because, well, reasons. And girl, I guess. And then after hundreds of pages, he wraps up the ending by skipping past like ten scenes we needed to see to understand the ending. O M G. Sir! What? This is not my area of expertise but the depiction of disability seems realllly problematic. There are some confounding flashbacks that are not well tied to the present day narrative. There are shifts in POV to characters who are never developed. So much is happening that is not good.
A character will do something, and then the author will explain why that character did that thing even though it is always, always, patently obvious. There are all these unnecessary and extensive expository ramblings. Nearly every scene ends with an editorial aside. It's kind of... shocking just how unfortunate some of the writing is. As a writer I take no pleasure in saying this because writing a book is hard work and, like I said, the amount of work that went into this book is plainly obvious. It just forgot that it was supposed to be a novel. Writing is hard.
I will say that a lot of research went into this book. This is not a lazily written book but it is poorly written. Sometimes, when a writer does a lot of research and wants the reader to know they are a credible expert on their subject, they make fiction seem like nonfiction. If you want a primer on pandemics (TIMELY), then sure, this book offers something useful. The problem is that there are just pages upon pages of what are, essentially, lectures on pandemics, vaccines, biological warfare, US Russian relations, etc.
It's interesting that this book was written well before the coronavirus because so much of it is prescient. Wright did a good job of anticipating what might happen in a global pandemic and unfortunately, much of what he predicts as part of the novel's plot, is already happening.
There are some ludicrous plot holes. The protagonist, Henry, is one of the most important epidemiologists in the world and no government can get him a flight back to the US? Really? He works for the CDC, and again, is super important, but he can't make sure his family is secure? Sometimes his disability gets in the way, sometimes it is completely forgotten in the narrative. He pretends to convert to Islam because, well, reasons. And girl, I guess. And then after hundreds of pages, he wraps up the ending by skipping past like ten scenes we needed to see to understand the ending. O M G. Sir! What? This is not my area of expertise but the depiction of disability seems realllly problematic. There are some confounding flashbacks that are not well tied to the present day narrative. There are shifts in POV to characters who are never developed. So much is happening that is not good.
A character will do something, and then the author will explain why that character did that thing even though it is always, always, patently obvious. There are all these unnecessary and extensive expository ramblings. Nearly every scene ends with an editorial aside. It's kind of... shocking just how unfortunate some of the writing is. As a writer I take no pleasure in saying this because writing a book is hard work and, like I said, the amount of work that went into this book is plainly obvious. It just forgot that it was supposed to be a novel. Writing is hard.
August 1, 2025
It's difficult to believe The End of October was written just before the *ish* hit the global fan a couple months ago.
If I'd read The End of October, say, last fall (2019), I'd have said "Cool speculative fiction, but wow, people wouldn't suck that bad in a real crisis, would they?"
Now I'm just nodding and thinking "Yep. That happened. And that too. We didn't measure up any better."
Lawrence Wright pretty much nailed the political finger-pointing and lack of preparedness, the world economy deterioration, the fear, the cover-ups, the shameful selfishness, everything. We know how realistic this book is and how well Wright predicted the world's reaction to a pandemic because IT JUST HAPPENED AND IT'S STILL HAPPENING. We haven't experienced (yet?) the population decimating extreme of his book -- since the Kongoli virus launches from a massive pilgrimage to Mecca and spreads by those pilgrims to every populated area on the planet in the blink of an eye -- but still, it rings all too true. Almost four million times true, and very definitely still counting.
I need time to absorb this. I blazed through this book, the bulk of it yesterday and today, because I couldn't put it down. Absolutely marking this as one of my 2020 favorites, and possibly will need to re-read. There's a lot to learn here.
If I'd read The End of October, say, last fall (2019), I'd have said "Cool speculative fiction, but wow, people wouldn't suck that bad in a real crisis, would they?"
Now I'm just nodding and thinking "Yep. That happened. And that too. We didn't measure up any better."
Lawrence Wright pretty much nailed the political finger-pointing and lack of preparedness, the world economy deterioration, the fear, the cover-ups, the shameful selfishness, everything. We know how realistic this book is and how well Wright predicted the world's reaction to a pandemic because IT JUST HAPPENED AND IT'S STILL HAPPENING. We haven't experienced (yet?) the population decimating extreme of his book -- since the Kongoli virus launches from a massive pilgrimage to Mecca and spreads by those pilgrims to every populated area on the planet in the blink of an eye -- but still, it rings all too true. Almost four million times true, and very definitely still counting.
I need time to absorb this. I blazed through this book, the bulk of it yesterday and today, because I couldn't put it down. Absolutely marking this as one of my 2020 favorites, and possibly will need to re-read. There's a lot to learn here.
August 14, 2020
At best, Henry had only slowed an inevitable, history-shaping pandemic. Governments would fall. Economies would collapse. Wars would arise. Why did we think that our own modern era was immune to the assault of humanity’s most cunning and relentless enemy, the microbe?
...
If you paid any attention to the role of disease in human affairs, you’d know the danger we’re in. We got smug after all of the victories over infection in the twentieth century, but nature is not a stable force. It evolves, it changes, and it never becomes complacent. We don’t have the time or resources now to do anything other than fight this disease. Every nation on earth has to be involved whether you think of them as friends or enemies. If we’re going to save civilization, we have to fight together and not against each other.
Apparently not even an actual, real-life pandemic can turn me away from reading books about disease outbreaks. So far this year, I’ve already read Cold Storage, The Andromeda Strain, The Seventh Plague, The Andromeda Evolution, Severance, Zone One, and World War Z. So it should be no surprise that I was quick to pick up The End of October.
More than any of the books above, this book tracks very closely to the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s an outbreak in Asia (in this case, in an Indonesian internment camp) that takes hold while a government suppresses the truth about the danger (you know, like China does). While the disease is a more lethal novel hemorrhagic flu rather than a coronavirus (you can’t predict everything), the book is full of discussions of the history of viruses and other diseases, and of concepts that have become all-too-common: sheltering in place and quarantines, ventilators and second waves.
The main character is Dr. Henry Parsons, the CDC’s leading epidemiologist. He is a fully developed character with an fascinating, unique backstory. Other major characters include those whose paths Henry crosses—from a Saudi prince, to a Hajj pilgrim, to the crew of a USN submarine—Henry’s family in Atlanta, and a National Security Advisor who’s largely there to give us the global, security perspective. Interestingly, there are several real people mixed in with the fictional ones (including an eerily familiar yet unnamed US President). And it’s got a clever ending like the movie Contagion (I may have a problem), where in the final pages we see how the pandemic began, and learn whether the outbreak was natural or manmade.
The book has some flaws. I’m not sure that a global pandemic will really be the trigger for countries to start unleashing cyberattacks and conventional wars against each other; it hasn’t been yet in real life anyway. Those side plots certainly detracted from what I felt was the main story. Mr. Wright also avoided writing several of the most emotional scenes in the story, instead choosing to have them happen off-screen: a significant character’s death, the reunion of some main characters. Still, if you’re interested in some realistic pandemic fiction, The End of October is a solid choice.
July 15, 2020
4.5 stars.
Lawrence Wright is an esteemed journalist and author. Among his many honours is his Pulitzer Prize for the non-fiction book, The Looming Tower about the rise of al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11. This is a meticulously researched book in the form of a novel. It contains much factual information about historic epidemics and their rampage through the worlds’ population and the social, political and economic aftermath. It also provided details of cyberattacks, bio-warfare and experimentation with pathogens.
Written before the present COVID pandemic, the author displays a mastery of historic details and scientific information. This is a chilling, prophetic novel forecasting what is happening now all over the world. The Kongoli virus described in this work of fiction is more deadly than the fearsome present Coronavirus.
The amount of information early in the book was overwhelming. I felt that the character of Dr. Henry Parsons was only there to connect parts of the narrative and move the story along. Dr. Henry is sent to Indonesia by WHO. He is considered the leading epidemiologist in infectious diseases.
There has been an outbreak of a disease of unknown origin in an Indonesian camp killing dozens of young men. Members of Doctors Without Borders have also died. It was evident that a coverup of the disease was underway. Dr. Henry was initially refused entrance and told the men were terrorists who were executed. When Dr. Henry finally examines the dead and dying, he realizes that this is a new, unknown viral disease. It has characteristics of the Coronavirus but is also similar to Ebola which manifests itself by hemorrhagic fever, bleeding from the eyes and other parts of the body while the lungs dissolve.
The Kongoli pandemic moves from Indonesia to Mecca at the time of the annual hajj. Despite efforts to contain it, there are many deaths. Pilgrims returning to their home countries before the quarantine is enforced spread the contagion. It is also being transported by avian migration. We see the horrific symptoms of the disease through the eyes of Dr. Henry Parsons. The borders of Saudi Arabia are closed and planes grounded.
Dr. Henry is a small man, bent and deformed by rickets and using a cane. He has a loving family in Atlanta and is desperate to return to them. This is impossible since the country is in lockdown. He becomes friendly with Majid, a doctor and Saudi Prince. He and Dr. Henry discuss philosophy, religion, and how to best deal with the disease. Henry reveals to Majid the shocking truth of his young boyhood and how he developed rickets, a story he has never told anyone.
Partway through the book, the story becomes character-driven. Dr. Henry and his family become compelling, well-developed characters. The heroic Majid helps Henry escape the country. He begins the ordeal of making his way back home to his family.
America, by this time, is in desperate condition. Millions have died. The president and vice-president resemble Trump and Spence. There is disharmony within the government and many politicians have died. The electricity, phones and internet are down. Looters and criminal gangs are roaming mostly empty cities, food is scarce, hoarders have emptied stores. There are rumours that the virus has been engineered as a weapon, and Russia is blamed for cyberattacks causing the loss of power. Some political figures are demanding war, either by nuclear attacks or germ warfare. Survivors are urged to practice social distancing, and there is a prediction that a new wave of the disease will be coming.
There is a villainous character, Dr. Jurgen, who once worked with Dr. Henry, and has much influence. The fear, stress, and tribulations of Dr. Henry’s family, left on their own, play a major part in the story. Will they be safe in all the turmoil? Will he find his family again in the fractured, bankrupt country?
This is a frightening, riveting story that provides the reader with a better understanding of virus-borne diseases. Like in our present pandemic, there was great pressure in the story to quickly find a cure and to make an effective serum to innoculate people against the disease. There is also their scarcity of protective equipment. I hope that the author will write a book in the future chronicling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawrence Wright is an esteemed journalist and author. Among his many honours is his Pulitzer Prize for the non-fiction book, The Looming Tower about the rise of al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11. This is a meticulously researched book in the form of a novel. It contains much factual information about historic epidemics and their rampage through the worlds’ population and the social, political and economic aftermath. It also provided details of cyberattacks, bio-warfare and experimentation with pathogens.
Written before the present COVID pandemic, the author displays a mastery of historic details and scientific information. This is a chilling, prophetic novel forecasting what is happening now all over the world. The Kongoli virus described in this work of fiction is more deadly than the fearsome present Coronavirus.
The amount of information early in the book was overwhelming. I felt that the character of Dr. Henry Parsons was only there to connect parts of the narrative and move the story along. Dr. Henry is sent to Indonesia by WHO. He is considered the leading epidemiologist in infectious diseases.
There has been an outbreak of a disease of unknown origin in an Indonesian camp killing dozens of young men. Members of Doctors Without Borders have also died. It was evident that a coverup of the disease was underway. Dr. Henry was initially refused entrance and told the men were terrorists who were executed. When Dr. Henry finally examines the dead and dying, he realizes that this is a new, unknown viral disease. It has characteristics of the Coronavirus but is also similar to Ebola which manifests itself by hemorrhagic fever, bleeding from the eyes and other parts of the body while the lungs dissolve.
The Kongoli pandemic moves from Indonesia to Mecca at the time of the annual hajj. Despite efforts to contain it, there are many deaths. Pilgrims returning to their home countries before the quarantine is enforced spread the contagion. It is also being transported by avian migration. We see the horrific symptoms of the disease through the eyes of Dr. Henry Parsons. The borders of Saudi Arabia are closed and planes grounded.
Dr. Henry is a small man, bent and deformed by rickets and using a cane. He has a loving family in Atlanta and is desperate to return to them. This is impossible since the country is in lockdown. He becomes friendly with Majid, a doctor and Saudi Prince. He and Dr. Henry discuss philosophy, religion, and how to best deal with the disease. Henry reveals to Majid the shocking truth of his young boyhood and how he developed rickets, a story he has never told anyone.
Partway through the book, the story becomes character-driven. Dr. Henry and his family become compelling, well-developed characters. The heroic Majid helps Henry escape the country. He begins the ordeal of making his way back home to his family.
America, by this time, is in desperate condition. Millions have died. The president and vice-president resemble Trump and Spence. There is disharmony within the government and many politicians have died. The electricity, phones and internet are down. Looters and criminal gangs are roaming mostly empty cities, food is scarce, hoarders have emptied stores. There are rumours that the virus has been engineered as a weapon, and Russia is blamed for cyberattacks causing the loss of power. Some political figures are demanding war, either by nuclear attacks or germ warfare. Survivors are urged to practice social distancing, and there is a prediction that a new wave of the disease will be coming.
There is a villainous character, Dr. Jurgen, who once worked with Dr. Henry, and has much influence. The fear, stress, and tribulations of Dr. Henry’s family, left on their own, play a major part in the story. Will they be safe in all the turmoil? Will he find his family again in the fractured, bankrupt country?
This is a frightening, riveting story that provides the reader with a better understanding of virus-borne diseases. Like in our present pandemic, there was great pressure in the story to quickly find a cure and to make an effective serum to innoculate people against the disease. There is also their scarcity of protective equipment. I hope that the author will write a book in the future chronicling the COVID-19 pandemic.
June 17, 2020
3.5 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 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.
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.
October 29, 2020
This was quite terrifying to read during a global pandemic. This book very much parallels what we are experiencing right now; a virus that is taking over the world, doctors and scientists are scrambling to understand it and get a vaccine, hospitals are reaching maximum capacity, and politicians try and act like they know more than the scientists. It’s all very familiar, which made it feel more real and scary. This book is very well-researched, and it’s clear in the writing how much time the author put into crafting this story.
I don’t read sci-fi often, and I think the main reason for that is because a lot of the science goes way over my head. This book was no exception. I felt like a lot of the science was over-explained in some parts to the point where I just got bored. I also never really cared about any of the characters, at least not the way I think I was intended to.
But this book was addicting, I listened to the audiobook and I finished it in two days because I had to know how it ended and that ending was absolutely chilling. Even though this isn’t my go-to genre I still found it to be really interestingly and compelling.
I don’t read sci-fi often, and I think the main reason for that is because a lot of the science goes way over my head. This book was no exception. I felt like a lot of the science was over-explained in some parts to the point where I just got bored. I also never really cared about any of the characters, at least not the way I think I was intended to.
But this book was addicting, I listened to the audiobook and I finished it in two days because I had to know how it ended and that ending was absolutely chilling. Even though this isn’t my go-to genre I still found it to be really interestingly and compelling.
June 28, 2020
Lawrence Wright’s new novel, ‘The End of October’ delivers a prescient account of a pandemic and its effect on the world and the USA. Who could have guessed that the world would be suffering from a major pandemic at just the time that Wright’s book was published? He began writing it in 2017 and finished it during the summer of 2019. It packs a punch and will resonate with many readers as its characters go through the worry and anxiety of a flu-like virus that possibly begins in Indonesia. At least that is where our main character, Henry Parsons will first encounter the virus in a refugee camp in Kongoli. An epidemiologist sent on behalf of WHO, Henry has seen death before, but nothing like the brutal scene at the camp.
”Every disease had its vulnerabilities, and Henry had made a career out of being the best at understanding the strategy of an alien infection, figuring out its next move, imagining the brilliant counter. Eventually, he would win, if he had time. Some diseases didn’t give you time, and then you relied on luck. He had been lucky, until now.”
What I enjoyed most about this novel is feeling like I’m in the hands of an expert. Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 2007 for, “The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, a book I have not read, but I did watch the TV series, and found it informative and skillfully rendered. Although this book is fiction, Wright lays its foundation with facts. The first victims of the virus are “gay Muslims with HIV.” Henry concludes this may be problematic, knowing that “diseases have a history of stirring up conspiracies. Jews were held responsible for the Black Plague in the fourteenth century, and they were massacred in hundreds of European cities, including two thousand Jews burned alive in Strasbourg, France, on Valentine’s Day, 1379.”
How strange it is to read about such a lethal epidemic while going through the coronavirus pandemic. It reinforces a lot of anxiety and makes me want to grow a garden, save seeds, and prepare for a future of food insecurity. That's the power of Wright's central theme, an uncertain future battling unknown viruses.
Wright weaves a supremely believable tale of modern world powers dangling the hangman’s noose of disorder to see who will come out on top. Chaos and disease are convivial companions. While Henry becomes involved in tracking down his taxi driver to prevent the further spread of this very lethal virus, his wife, Jill, daughter, Helen, and son, Teddy are left to endure the trials of what’s happening back home. With a plot-driven narrative, character development is a bit on the thin side, but the characters gain my empathy. Wright excels at intrigues, scientific and political knowledge, and spinning a thriller that seems to speak of one of humanity’s possible destinies.
”Every disease had its vulnerabilities, and Henry had made a career out of being the best at understanding the strategy of an alien infection, figuring out its next move, imagining the brilliant counter. Eventually, he would win, if he had time. Some diseases didn’t give you time, and then you relied on luck. He had been lucky, until now.”
What I enjoyed most about this novel is feeling like I’m in the hands of an expert. Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 2007 for, “The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, a book I have not read, but I did watch the TV series, and found it informative and skillfully rendered. Although this book is fiction, Wright lays its foundation with facts. The first victims of the virus are “gay Muslims with HIV.” Henry concludes this may be problematic, knowing that “diseases have a history of stirring up conspiracies. Jews were held responsible for the Black Plague in the fourteenth century, and they were massacred in hundreds of European cities, including two thousand Jews burned alive in Strasbourg, France, on Valentine’s Day, 1379.”
How strange it is to read about such a lethal epidemic while going through the coronavirus pandemic. It reinforces a lot of anxiety and makes me want to grow a garden, save seeds, and prepare for a future of food insecurity. That's the power of Wright's central theme, an uncertain future battling unknown viruses.
Wright weaves a supremely believable tale of modern world powers dangling the hangman’s noose of disorder to see who will come out on top. Chaos and disease are convivial companions. While Henry becomes involved in tracking down his taxi driver to prevent the further spread of this very lethal virus, his wife, Jill, daughter, Helen, and son, Teddy are left to endure the trials of what’s happening back home. With a plot-driven narrative, character development is a bit on the thin side, but the characters gain my empathy. Wright excels at intrigues, scientific and political knowledge, and spinning a thriller that seems to speak of one of humanity’s possible destinies.
November 27, 2023
Lawrence Wright’s political and medical thriller
The End of October
was published early in 2020 and written slightly before the recent pandemic. Dr. Henry Parsons is the deputy director for infectious diseases at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. After attending a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, he is sent to Indonesia where forty-seven people have died with acute hemorrhagic fever. What he finds is horrifying in multiple ways. When an infected man leaves the country to join the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Henry joins forces with a Saudi Arabian price and doctor to quarantine those that have been exposed. What caused the virus? Is it a form of biowarfare, an accidental escape from a laboratory, or something natural that is new?
Henry is sincere, frugal, intelligent, compassionate, curious, and radiates confidence. However, he can also be reticent and steely. He also feels guilt and shame for actions early in his career. The other characters have varying degrees of depth. While most of the book is from Henry’s point of view, readers also get the occasional point of view from his wife Jill, his daughter Helen, a reporter, and a deputy director for homeland security.
I thought this book was well-researched. Be prepared for in-depth discussions of the history and nature of viruses and prior pandemics as well as discussions around the science of combatting them. Additionally, many of the things we recently experienced with the coronavirus pandemic occurred in this novel. Examples include how unprepared the world was for it from a public health standpoint. This included things like the lack of ventilators and personal protective equipment and the understaffing at hospitals to handle the workload. It also shows how scientists worked tirelessly to develop a vaccine. However, the book also shows the breakdown of trust, economic impact, fear, hatred, and much more. The difficulty of quarantines and the run on store supplies and groceries also found its way into the novel. One big difference is that this novel goes even further to include some geopolitical actions that take the story to another level.
Overall, this is a heartbreaking, riveting, and frightening novel that kept me engaged throughout. If you enjoy medical and political thrillers as well as science and history of viruses and pandemics, then I highly recommend this novel.
I purchased a copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date was April 28, 2020.
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My 3.84 rounded to 4 stars review is coming soon.
Henry is sincere, frugal, intelligent, compassionate, curious, and radiates confidence. However, he can also be reticent and steely. He also feels guilt and shame for actions early in his career. The other characters have varying degrees of depth. While most of the book is from Henry’s point of view, readers also get the occasional point of view from his wife Jill, his daughter Helen, a reporter, and a deputy director for homeland security.
I thought this book was well-researched. Be prepared for in-depth discussions of the history and nature of viruses and prior pandemics as well as discussions around the science of combatting them. Additionally, many of the things we recently experienced with the coronavirus pandemic occurred in this novel. Examples include how unprepared the world was for it from a public health standpoint. This included things like the lack of ventilators and personal protective equipment and the understaffing at hospitals to handle the workload. It also shows how scientists worked tirelessly to develop a vaccine. However, the book also shows the breakdown of trust, economic impact, fear, hatred, and much more. The difficulty of quarantines and the run on store supplies and groceries also found its way into the novel. One big difference is that this novel goes even further to include some geopolitical actions that take the story to another level.
Overall, this is a heartbreaking, riveting, and frightening novel that kept me engaged throughout. If you enjoy medical and political thrillers as well as science and history of viruses and pandemics, then I highly recommend this novel.
I purchased a copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date was April 28, 2020.
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My 3.84 rounded to 4 stars review is coming soon.
June 12, 2024
This was so the book for 2020! What’s super spooky about this medical thriller, which chronicles what happens when a horribly contagious virus breaks out in a refugee camp in the Philippines and quickly turns into a worldwide pandemic is that it was published at the very beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, and obviously completed long before then, but is so eerily similar in places to how actual real life events played out.
Henry Parsons is an epidemiologist who has traveled the globe researching scary disease outbreaks and dealing with their aftermath. This particular outbreak is too severe and deadly to contain. And there may be more sinister causes behind its origin. I loved the way this jumped timelines to include real past outbreaks, had multiple POVs and took place on a global stage. As Henry tries to contain the outbreak, he’s frantic to escape lockdown (who from 2020 can’t relate?) and get home to his family. Then things go from bad to worse… Really well written. This had a cool ending that I really liked… but it was a bit abrupt which made me wonder will there be a sequel? I couldn’t find any information online, but I’m certainly hoping there is a part two!
Henry Parsons is an epidemiologist who has traveled the globe researching scary disease outbreaks and dealing with their aftermath. This particular outbreak is too severe and deadly to contain. And there may be more sinister causes behind its origin. I loved the way this jumped timelines to include real past outbreaks, had multiple POVs and took place on a global stage. As Henry tries to contain the outbreak, he’s frantic to escape lockdown (who from 2020 can’t relate?) and get home to his family. Then things go from bad to worse… Really well written. This had a cool ending that I really liked… but it was a bit abrupt which made me wonder will there be a sequel? I couldn’t find any information online, but I’m certainly hoping there is a part two!
May 25, 2020
Let's give credit where credit is due. Lawrence Wright does his research. He won the Pulitzer for non-fiction for his examination of Al-Qaed. He followed that up with an expose on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology which got turned into an HBO Documentary. Now he's trained his eye on a possible pandemic for this fictional thriller.
How did he do?
Well, we have a mysterious influenza virus that originates in Asia in the Spring of 2020 that sends economies into a tailspin, shuts down schools, overwhelms hospitals, has the American government playing catch-up while battling disinformation and wild conspiracies. Not too shabby.
The thing is his endgame is the near complete breakdown of human civilization. This was prompted by a question from Ridley Scott who, after reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, wondered what would nudge humanity to this dystopian hellscape? And so he ups the ante with a bomb in Rome, rising tensions in the Middle East, and a Cold War threatening to go nuclear with Russia sabotaging critical American infrastructure. Things get pretty dark.
And here's where it veers into airport thriller territory. Unlikely hero, short, stooped and in need of a cane while being the foremost expert in disease that sees him traipsing the globe in a helicopter, private jet and a fast-attack submarine - naturally. He goes from hobnobbing with Middle Eastern royalty to working in the midst of viral hotspots. It's Dan Brown writing a pandemic novel.
So the writing isn't exactly the sharpest, but it's no less a page-turner. Where you find yourself gulping in nervous anticipation is how much he got right so far, and how much more death he predicts will arrive come the End of October.
How did he do?
Well, we have a mysterious influenza virus that originates in Asia in the Spring of 2020 that sends economies into a tailspin, shuts down schools, overwhelms hospitals, has the American government playing catch-up while battling disinformation and wild conspiracies. Not too shabby.
The thing is his endgame is the near complete breakdown of human civilization. This was prompted by a question from Ridley Scott who, after reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, wondered what would nudge humanity to this dystopian hellscape? And so he ups the ante with a bomb in Rome, rising tensions in the Middle East, and a Cold War threatening to go nuclear with Russia sabotaging critical American infrastructure. Things get pretty dark.
And here's where it veers into airport thriller territory. Unlikely hero, short, stooped and in need of a cane while being the foremost expert in disease that sees him traipsing the globe in a helicopter, private jet and a fast-attack submarine - naturally. He goes from hobnobbing with Middle Eastern royalty to working in the midst of viral hotspots. It's Dan Brown writing a pandemic novel.
So the writing isn't exactly the sharpest, but it's no less a page-turner. Where you find yourself gulping in nervous anticipation is how much he got right so far, and how much more death he predicts will arrive come the End of October.
November 9, 2020
A “pandemic thriller” in the vein of Michael Crichton but written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright ( The Looming Tower and Going Clear ).
This is an odd and entirely unsuccessful move into fiction by this author. Was this rushed into publication due to its undeniable parallels with our current pandemic? Whatever the reason for this fiasco, do not be fooled, this is a dangerous mix of some accurate science (well-researched history of infectious disease ) alongside a vast raft of absolute gubbins.
Despite the long list of scientific acknowledgements (Ian Lipkin !) I have serious doubts about this being read by an infectious disease expert from cover to cover. Admittedly, scientists do have more important things to be going on with at the moment.
Many reviewers have explained why this fails as a thriller; information dumps with weak plot interspersed. But I also think this does an insultingly poor job of representing the field of scientific endeavour. At a time where public trust in scientists and the process of science is threatened by all manner of conspiracy theories and disinformation, we do not need more books which have nefarious scientists running around engineering nonsensical superbugs.
A curated list of things that ANNOYED me ( Warning Spoilers) :
- The tired trope of the Superhero Scientist (white / male / American ) that has one Eureka! moment that saves the world. Science makes progress more often than not in multi-disciplinary/ multi-national teams and this narrative of one independent genius needs retiring.
- The risible host range; this fictional virus naturally infects - mammoths / polar bears /pigs / all birds including swans, turkeys, cranes, finches, dogs and humans. The virus has clinical symptoms that seem to riff off Ebola, and Influenza, so it's both blood-borne and respiratory? Look, I get the need to have a viral super baddie but pick a lane! Oh yeah, it also turns you blue ...
- Humanity is saved when Dr Henry Parsons remembers about Variolation and decides to inject copious amounts of infectious snot into volunteer finches. ( Reader: do not question why the best minds in the world, during a deadly pandemic never tried this in a Laboratory rather than a Submarine, nor why this would even work, just let it go ... )
As Parsons says :
There's no way to confirm the findings. If we had more birds and more time, I would infect the surviving bird's virus to see if it has modified. But we don't have either. ( Ever heard of genomic sequencing ?? admittedly being on a submarine while doing this experiment IS a limitation )
So what now, doc?
I've selected a human volunteer as a guinea pig to receive the virus. If he survives, we'll work on the theory that we have found a way to reduce mortality. That's the best we can hope for, I'm afraid
Someone get this guy to work on the Coronavirus Vaccine Taskforce stat!
For those interested in some quality non-fiction on pandemics, I would suggest: Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance The Coming Plague by Laurie Garret, Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC
This is an odd and entirely unsuccessful move into fiction by this author. Was this rushed into publication due to its undeniable parallels with our current pandemic? Whatever the reason for this fiasco, do not be fooled, this is a dangerous mix of some accurate science (well-researched history of infectious disease ) alongside a vast raft of absolute gubbins.
Despite the long list of scientific acknowledgements (Ian Lipkin !) I have serious doubts about this being read by an infectious disease expert from cover to cover. Admittedly, scientists do have more important things to be going on with at the moment.
Many reviewers have explained why this fails as a thriller; information dumps with weak plot interspersed. But I also think this does an insultingly poor job of representing the field of scientific endeavour. At a time where public trust in scientists and the process of science is threatened by all manner of conspiracy theories and disinformation, we do not need more books which have nefarious scientists running around engineering nonsensical superbugs.
A curated list of things that ANNOYED me ( Warning Spoilers) :
- The tired trope of the Superhero Scientist (white / male / American ) that has one Eureka! moment that saves the world. Science makes progress more often than not in multi-disciplinary/ multi-national teams and this narrative of one independent genius needs retiring.
- The risible host range; this fictional virus naturally infects - mammoths / polar bears /pigs / all birds including swans, turkeys, cranes, finches, dogs and humans. The virus has clinical symptoms that seem to riff off Ebola, and Influenza, so it's both blood-borne and respiratory? Look, I get the need to have a viral super baddie but pick a lane! Oh yeah, it also turns you blue ...
- Humanity is saved when Dr Henry Parsons remembers about Variolation and decides to inject copious amounts of infectious snot into volunteer finches. ( Reader: do not question why the best minds in the world, during a deadly pandemic never tried this in a Laboratory rather than a Submarine, nor why this would even work, just let it go ... )
As Parsons says :
There's no way to confirm the findings. If we had more birds and more time, I would infect the surviving bird's virus to see if it has modified. But we don't have either. ( Ever heard of genomic sequencing ?? admittedly being on a submarine while doing this experiment IS a limitation )
So what now, doc?
I've selected a human volunteer as a guinea pig to receive the virus. If he survives, we'll work on the theory that we have found a way to reduce mortality. That's the best we can hope for, I'm afraid
Someone get this guy to work on the Coronavirus Vaccine Taskforce stat!
For those interested in some quality non-fiction on pandemics, I would suggest: Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance The Coming Plague by Laurie Garret, Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC
April 25, 2020
Most advance copies of books include a letter from the editor or publicist explaining what's so great about the book. This one includes a letter from the author that starts:
When it comes time for character development and tying a plot together, however, I found this book to be fairly lacking. The characters remain relatively one-dimensional and the subplots involving global politics—war between Iran and Russia, terrorism in the Middle East—sometimes feel forced into the overall narrative, especially early when it's not clear why Wright is including these elements. I don't think this book would be particularly notable if it was not being coincidentally published amidst the very situation it describes, but reading it while in quarantine was definitely a unique experience.
"I pray that the events depicted in The End of October never happen. But could they?"This book was obviously conceived and written before the current pandemic began, but its timing is chilling given what Lawrence Wright was able to predict regarding what we are experiencing. His predictions are not that shocking, though, because this book was thoroughly researched and Wright was producing a story that many immunologists and medical professionals knew could happen. Because of this, The End of October often feels like a well-written piece of narrative nonfiction and that's where its greatest strengths lie. The Kongoli virus described here is hemorrhagic, meaning it's more closely related to Ebola than to COVID-19, and it is spread from Indonesia to the rest of the world in part because of Muslim pilgrimages and avian migration. But there's a lot of scientific explanations that are relevant to the world in the spring of 2020. If this were nonfiction, it would be a 4- or 5-star read for sure.
When it comes time for character development and tying a plot together, however, I found this book to be fairly lacking. The characters remain relatively one-dimensional and the subplots involving global politics—war between Iran and Russia, terrorism in the Middle East—sometimes feel forced into the overall narrative, especially early when it's not clear why Wright is including these elements. I don't think this book would be particularly notable if it was not being coincidentally published amidst the very situation it describes, but reading it while in quarantine was definitely a unique experience.
July 4, 2022
Oh man, this could have easily been one of my favorite books of the year. But it wasn’t to be.
The first two thirds of this story are amazing. Henry Parsons, the CDC’s leading epidemiologist, is sent to Indonesia to investigate the deaths of 47 people in an internment camp. What he finds there is something he has never seen before. Something that ultimately finds its way out of the camp. We then follow Henry to Saudi Arabia in search of the one survivor who is carrying the virus. Unfortunately, that guy is on a pilgrimage to Mecca. And the shit hits the fan.
Borders are closed, air travel is suspended, and Henry finds himself stranded in Saudi Arabia, while there’s also a war with Iran on the horizon. And a full-blown epidemic, of course. Henry is friends with a Saudi prince, and the relationship between the two provided some wonderful moments, as they both face ever growing challenges, and their friendship deepens in the face of imminent danger.
Meanwhile there are geopolitical tensions galore, as the virus is spreading across the globe and questions are raised whether it was man-made, and walked out of a lab somewhere, or maybe even had been spread intentionally as an act of biological warfare.
Some real people actually found their way into this novel, like Vladimir Putin, and a lot of real science and history did so as well. It’s probably the only criticism I have for the first two thirds of the book that there are a lot of infodumps, mainly about the history of diseases, that draw away attention from the main story. But the truth is, I hugely enjoyed them. It’s just something that interests me a lot.
This book surely was on its way to my favorites shelf.
Unfortunately, then in turned into a run-of-the-mill apocalyptic / end of civilization novel. Several plot points and whole character arks were discarded completely, while it all became about the dying US, cyber- and other wars, Henry’s attempts to get back to his family and the struggles of the latter to stay alive. Now the book had become a Dan Brown-like thriller, with realism of any sorts thrown out the window, and the search for a cure turning into a series of Eureka! moments by one individual. Look, I get that this is quite a popular formula, and it probably would have worked if this had been a cheesy thriller from the beginning. But this book promised to be so much more, and the shift in tone (and character) was jarring. Additionally, the previously appreciated infodumps now turned into a huge hindrance for the pacing.
The last part of the book really feels rushed. Like it had to be released in time to use the current pandemic, and its undeniable parallels to many things that happen in this novel, for marketing purposes. In addition to the plot points and characters that were completely forgotten about by the author, there are also major deaths and a reunion happening off page. It felt rather odd.
A lot of research went into this novel, it’s clear to see. But more time should have gone into the editorial process. Wright had an interesting main character (I didn’t even go into any details of his fascinating and unique backstory here), he had this deadly virus, the terrifying political, economic, social and psychological consequences of a pandemic, a suspenseful story - and then when it should all have come to a head it just fizzled out. I’m disappointed.
Still, 4 stars, because this novel had so many great parts. But none of them are to be found in the last third. Alas.
Recommended by Charles
The first two thirds of this story are amazing. Henry Parsons, the CDC’s leading epidemiologist, is sent to Indonesia to investigate the deaths of 47 people in an internment camp. What he finds there is something he has never seen before. Something that ultimately finds its way out of the camp. We then follow Henry to Saudi Arabia in search of the one survivor who is carrying the virus. Unfortunately, that guy is on a pilgrimage to Mecca. And the shit hits the fan.
Borders are closed, air travel is suspended, and Henry finds himself stranded in Saudi Arabia, while there’s also a war with Iran on the horizon. And a full-blown epidemic, of course. Henry is friends with a Saudi prince, and the relationship between the two provided some wonderful moments, as they both face ever growing challenges, and their friendship deepens in the face of imminent danger.
Meanwhile there are geopolitical tensions galore, as the virus is spreading across the globe and questions are raised whether it was man-made, and walked out of a lab somewhere, or maybe even had been spread intentionally as an act of biological warfare.
Some real people actually found their way into this novel, like Vladimir Putin, and a lot of real science and history did so as well. It’s probably the only criticism I have for the first two thirds of the book that there are a lot of infodumps, mainly about the history of diseases, that draw away attention from the main story. But the truth is, I hugely enjoyed them. It’s just something that interests me a lot.
This book surely was on its way to my favorites shelf.
Unfortunately, then in turned into a run-of-the-mill apocalyptic / end of civilization novel. Several plot points and whole character arks were discarded completely, while it all became about the dying US, cyber- and other wars, Henry’s attempts to get back to his family and the struggles of the latter to stay alive. Now the book had become a Dan Brown-like thriller, with realism of any sorts thrown out the window, and the search for a cure turning into a series of Eureka! moments by one individual. Look, I get that this is quite a popular formula, and it probably would have worked if this had been a cheesy thriller from the beginning. But this book promised to be so much more, and the shift in tone (and character) was jarring. Additionally, the previously appreciated infodumps now turned into a huge hindrance for the pacing.
The last part of the book really feels rushed. Like it had to be released in time to use the current pandemic, and its undeniable parallels to many things that happen in this novel, for marketing purposes. In addition to the plot points and characters that were completely forgotten about by the author, there are also major deaths and a reunion happening off page. It felt rather odd.
A lot of research went into this novel, it’s clear to see. But more time should have gone into the editorial process. Wright had an interesting main character (I didn’t even go into any details of his fascinating and unique backstory here), he had this deadly virus, the terrifying political, economic, social and psychological consequences of a pandemic, a suspenseful story - and then when it should all have come to a head it just fizzled out. I’m disappointed.
Still, 4 stars, because this novel had so many great parts. But none of them are to be found in the last third. Alas.
Recommended by Charles
June 14, 2020
Hello readers -- I rarely give 5 stars to a fiction book but this one completely blew me away! To say that it is prescient and timely is an understatement. If you have a desire to really understand what is going on in the world right now, this is a novel that you cannot afford to miss! It is shocking and absorbing with so much information that I can't even relay it in a review. I was overcome with so many emotions as I read this and I think it is one that every sentient being on the planet cannot afford to miss this year.
It starts with a few cases in an Indonesian camp set aside for Muslims with HIV. Termed the Kongoli virus, this is a killer unlike anything seen since the pandemic Spanish Flu of 1918. As it infects the entire world, there are only a few who understand what has happened and its ramifications. Doctor and epidemiologist, Henry Parsons, is one of those few. His history is unusual, he's gone around the globe fighting epidemics of horrific proportion. "Science knows no borders, nor does disease -- especially a disease that can literally fly across international boundaries." This novel explores the nature of a virus unlike any that has occurred in recent human history and its aftermath is beyond chilling. "Disease was more powerful than armies. Disease was more arbitrary than terrorists. Disease was crueler than human imagination." The entire world is under attack and there is no treatment for the scourge affecting the world population. There are no spoilers here but I urge you to read this chilling story of a world in ruins.
The writing and research involved in this novel are of epic proportions. The science, the human component, the political fallout are all so vividly described. If you only read one book this year, I urge you to pick up this one. I know it's going to be tough as you sit in self-quarantine lock-down with little information on our own situation with COVID-19, but the message within is extremely powerful and must be communicated. Don't be complacent. "But nature is not a stable force. It evolves, it changes, and it never comes complacent." Our way of life, our civilization, our future depends on us getting a handle on these organisms and saving humanity. This is real. And I realize this is a work of fiction, but it is so eerily close to what is happening now that it totally petrified me. Maybe you don't have the stomach or nerve to read this now while you are sitting at home in isolation and worrying about your family and your job, but I'm telling you that our lives are now entering into the phase of nightmare and this book puts it all out there.
Thank you to NetGalley and Alfred A. Knopf Publishers for this e-book ARC to read, review, and highly recommend. DO NOT MISS IT.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3L5AZZ...
It starts with a few cases in an Indonesian camp set aside for Muslims with HIV. Termed the Kongoli virus, this is a killer unlike anything seen since the pandemic Spanish Flu of 1918. As it infects the entire world, there are only a few who understand what has happened and its ramifications. Doctor and epidemiologist, Henry Parsons, is one of those few. His history is unusual, he's gone around the globe fighting epidemics of horrific proportion. "Science knows no borders, nor does disease -- especially a disease that can literally fly across international boundaries." This novel explores the nature of a virus unlike any that has occurred in recent human history and its aftermath is beyond chilling. "Disease was more powerful than armies. Disease was more arbitrary than terrorists. Disease was crueler than human imagination." The entire world is under attack and there is no treatment for the scourge affecting the world population. There are no spoilers here but I urge you to read this chilling story of a world in ruins.
The writing and research involved in this novel are of epic proportions. The science, the human component, the political fallout are all so vividly described. If you only read one book this year, I urge you to pick up this one. I know it's going to be tough as you sit in self-quarantine lock-down with little information on our own situation with COVID-19, but the message within is extremely powerful and must be communicated. Don't be complacent. "But nature is not a stable force. It evolves, it changes, and it never comes complacent." Our way of life, our civilization, our future depends on us getting a handle on these organisms and saving humanity. This is real. And I realize this is a work of fiction, but it is so eerily close to what is happening now that it totally petrified me. Maybe you don't have the stomach or nerve to read this now while you are sitting at home in isolation and worrying about your family and your job, but I'm telling you that our lives are now entering into the phase of nightmare and this book puts it all out there.
Thank you to NetGalley and Alfred A. Knopf Publishers for this e-book ARC to read, review, and highly recommend. DO NOT MISS IT.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3L5AZZ...
July 6, 2021
Uma Quase Profecia
“O total de vírus existentes no planeta é cerca de 100 milhões de vezes superior ao total de estrelas do universo”
Algures na Indonésia, um vírus assassino mata 47 humanos e anseia por mais! Este serial killer invisível, um polvo de cabeça minúscula e infinitos tentáculos, viaja agora pelo mundo deixando um rasto de morte por onde passa!...
“Ao infetar uma célula, um vírus introduz na mesma os seus genes e usa a energia dessa célula para se reproduzir — na prática, converte a célula-vítima numa fábrica de vírus.”
“Ao fim de poucas horas, a vítima está pronta a infetar outros, libertando meio milhão de partículas virais no ar de cada vez que tosse ou espirra. As partículas viajam pelo ar e vão alojar-se nos pulmões daqueles que estiverem próximos, ou então pousam em superfícies nas quais sobrevivem horas a fio”
Déjà vu?!
De facto, tal quadro é-nos familiar. Contudo, não se trata duma versão plagiada da nossa recente realidade — Lawrence Wright iniciou O Surto em 2017 e deu o manuscrito por concluído em 2019, pouco antes da loucura covid-19 que estamos ainda a experienciar!
Trata-se então duma profecia?
Bem... tendo em conta que as pandemias já aconteceram antes, uma investigação acurada foi q.b.! Porém, o timing perfeito em que O Surto deu entrada na cena literária confere~lhe um estatuto de quase profecia 😉
Além de muito mais, O Surto é uma lupa sobre a nossa recém adquirida normalidade! A sua leitura magnifica a consciência do perigo que enfrentamos e estimula-nos o instinto de sobrevivência...
Eu cá adorei 👍🌟🌟🌟🌟👍
“O total de vírus existentes no planeta é cerca de 100 milhões de vezes superior ao total de estrelas do universo”
Algures na Indonésia, um vírus assassino mata 47 humanos e anseia por mais! Este serial killer invisível, um polvo de cabeça minúscula e infinitos tentáculos, viaja agora pelo mundo deixando um rasto de morte por onde passa!...
“Ao infetar uma célula, um vírus introduz na mesma os seus genes e usa a energia dessa célula para se reproduzir — na prática, converte a célula-vítima numa fábrica de vírus.”
“Ao fim de poucas horas, a vítima está pronta a infetar outros, libertando meio milhão de partículas virais no ar de cada vez que tosse ou espirra. As partículas viajam pelo ar e vão alojar-se nos pulmões daqueles que estiverem próximos, ou então pousam em superfícies nas quais sobrevivem horas a fio”
Déjà vu?!
De facto, tal quadro é-nos familiar. Contudo, não se trata duma versão plagiada da nossa recente realidade — Lawrence Wright iniciou O Surto em 2017 e deu o manuscrito por concluído em 2019, pouco antes da loucura covid-19 que estamos ainda a experienciar!
Trata-se então duma profecia?
Bem... tendo em conta que as pandemias já aconteceram antes, uma investigação acurada foi q.b.! Porém, o timing perfeito em que O Surto deu entrada na cena literária confere~lhe um estatuto de quase profecia 😉
Além de muito mais, O Surto é uma lupa sobre a nossa recém adquirida normalidade! A sua leitura magnifica a consciência do perigo que enfrentamos e estimula-nos o instinto de sobrevivência...
Eu cá adorei 👍🌟🌟🌟🌟👍
November 29, 2020
Ooooh.... What a great ending!
I didn't see that coming at all. The ending reminds me of a TV series that can't be named in order not to spoil for other readers 🤫. But the difference is how the TV series starts is how this one ends!😁
Very timely pandemic thriller that starts in Indonesia then spread by a sick man who traveled to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage.
If not for the slow pacing at about 8 hours in, this could've been 5 stars.
I didn't see that coming at all. The ending reminds me of a TV series that can't be named in order not to spoil for other readers 🤫. But the difference is how the TV series starts is how this one ends!😁
Very timely pandemic thriller that starts in Indonesia then spread by a sick man who traveled to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage.
If not for the slow pacing at about 8 hours in, this could've been 5 stars.
April 25, 2020
This book suffers from identity issues. Is it a a Dan Brown knockoff? A morality story? A non-fiction of pandemics? A global survey of pandemic preparedness?
It is all of these, yet so scattered that it is successful at being none of them.
Our main character, Henry, is the greatest epidemiologist the CDC has even known, we also flit around perspectives to his family, and a high level Homeland Security staffer. In a fun twist, we also go back in time to an indeterminate period before Henry worked at CDC. We also have time jumps in the main narrative to the point that I have no idea how long any particular event takes.
The characters have little personality and no arcs to speak of.
There are many villains, which fits with the post 9/11 America we know - every outsider is here to upend American Imperialism and fear drives policy (instead of models and common sense). Like a story with a global pandemic and that ostensibly has a main character doesn't also need to be on the cusp of war with Iran and Russia, have an electromagnetic pulse type deal bring down techonolgy, nuke troubles, "Don't Tread on Me" type farmers, etc etc and so on. The book could have all of these things if it had been episodic in instructure (like World War Z), but by trying to center everything around Henry and his family these sprawling concerns just make for tonal dissonance.
We also get info dumps from Henry about the history of pandemics and viruses - and I think they're supposed to make the reader go "oooooh how clever", but instead cause the action to come to a halt.
I think the publisher was wise to move up the publication date, and I think people will take comfort in the story - Covid 19 isn't this dramatic, if nothing else. I just wish more time had been taken to figure out what this book wanted to be. It could've been a great Dan Brown knockoff, but it aspires to more to its detriment.
Thank you to the publisher, via Edelweiss for providing me with a copy for review.
It is all of these, yet so scattered that it is successful at being none of them.
Our main character, Henry, is the greatest epidemiologist the CDC has even known, we also flit around perspectives to his family, and a high level Homeland Security staffer. In a fun twist, we also go back in time to an indeterminate period before Henry worked at CDC. We also have time jumps in the main narrative to the point that I have no idea how long any particular event takes.
The characters have little personality and no arcs to speak of.
There are many villains, which fits with the post 9/11 America we know - every outsider is here to upend American Imperialism and fear drives policy (instead of models and common sense). Like a story with a global pandemic and that ostensibly has a main character doesn't also need to be on the cusp of war with Iran and Russia, have an electromagnetic pulse type deal bring down techonolgy, nuke troubles, "Don't Tread on Me" type farmers, etc etc and so on. The book could have all of these things if it had been episodic in instructure (like World War Z), but by trying to center everything around Henry and his family these sprawling concerns just make for tonal dissonance.
We also get info dumps from Henry about the history of pandemics and viruses - and I think they're supposed to make the reader go "oooooh how clever", but instead cause the action to come to a halt.
I think the publisher was wise to move up the publication date, and I think people will take comfort in the story - Covid 19 isn't this dramatic, if nothing else. I just wish more time had been taken to figure out what this book wanted to be. It could've been a great Dan Brown knockoff, but it aspires to more to its detriment.
Thank you to the publisher, via Edelweiss for providing me with a copy for review.
July 10, 2020
QUICK TAKE: I’m a huge science fiction nerd, and growing up, my first foray into the genre was through the works of Michael Crichton. I loved how books like Jurassic Park posed the question, “What would happen if people abused the laws of science and nature?” ... and then let said abused science and nature run roughshod all over humanity. Which is why I was immediately drawn to The End of October, a frighteningly prescient look at how the world would react in the event of a global pandemic.
When 47 people are pronounced dead at an Indonesian internment camp, epidemiologist Henry Parsons is sent in to investigate what happened. What he discovers is an unstoppable deadly new virus that threatens humanity. As Henry races against the clock to uncover answers and find a cure, back home in America his family is forced to deal with the fallout from the pandemic: social distancing, a collapsing economy, rampant fake news, inundated hospitals, and food droughts.
Sound familiar?
It’s hard not to compare The End of October to current news and events, and it’s unnerving to read just how “right” author Lawrence Wright got it. But that only makes the book that much more of a propulsive page-turner. Often we turn to sci-fi as a way of escaping the real world, but this might be one of the few instances where readers find sci-fi more relatable than fiction. And while The End of October may be topical and terrifying, by its conclusion, it offers a glimmer of hope for us in these uncertain times.
When 47 people are pronounced dead at an Indonesian internment camp, epidemiologist Henry Parsons is sent in to investigate what happened. What he discovers is an unstoppable deadly new virus that threatens humanity. As Henry races against the clock to uncover answers and find a cure, back home in America his family is forced to deal with the fallout from the pandemic: social distancing, a collapsing economy, rampant fake news, inundated hospitals, and food droughts.
Sound familiar?
It’s hard not to compare The End of October to current news and events, and it’s unnerving to read just how “right” author Lawrence Wright got it. But that only makes the book that much more of a propulsive page-turner. Often we turn to sci-fi as a way of escaping the real world, but this might be one of the few instances where readers find sci-fi more relatable than fiction. And while The End of October may be topical and terrifying, by its conclusion, it offers a glimmer of hope for us in these uncertain times.
May 6, 2020
This book was fast paced and entertaining and the author obviously did a lot of research before writing it. I’ve read a lot of escaped-killer-virus books, but I never thought I would be living inside one. This book was not better than the others I have read, but it’s huge advantage is it’s timeliness. It was told from the point of view of a scientist who was separated from his family as the virus that was first seen in an Indonesian detention camp spread around the world. It also included the struggle to survive of his wife and young children. I think that the pandemic story would have been dramatic enough without layering on a Middle Eastern war and a cyberattack. I also think that the ending of the book was flat and unsatisfying.
November 29, 2020
Governments would fall. Economies would collapse. Wars would arise. Why did we think that our own modern era was immune to the assault of humanity's most cunning and relentless enemy, the microbe?
The release of Wright's medical thriller about a devastating global pandemic was certainly well timed, coming out just as COVID-19 swept across the planet. I finished this novel on Thanksgiving - a day when I'm guessing many families, despite dire warnings from doctors and scientists, gathered together to share warmth, togetherness, and viruses. What happens next will not be pleasant, but I hope that it will be nothing like what is detailed within the pages of this book.
Wright's book is obviously well researched, but it reads like a novel written by a man more used to writing nonfiction; the facts and science are more important than the characters and the dialogue, BUT - it's still a fascinating and compelling read. I've not read many books on the subject of pandemics, but the author seems to get it right here. As in the nonfictional The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus, valuable time is wasted while various agencies argue over who will take the lead:
"Who's in charge," Henry asked.
"Everybody," Marco said.
Exactly what Henry had feared.
And, during whose administration does this fictional pandemic occur?
She was shown into the family quarters upstairs, and taken to the Cosmetology Room, a place she had never heard of, white and brightly lit, with a shelf full of cosmetics and brushes and a professional hair dryer. A tanning bed was fitted against the wall.
Take a wild guess . . .
What leadership? Tildy thought. The president had been almost entirely absent in the debate about how to deal with the contagion, except to blame the opposing party for ignoring public health needs before he took office.
Wow. I seem to recall that is exactly what happened, only with more golfing.
While this is not a great book, it is a definite page-turner. If not for the current crisis, would it have disappeared without much of a ripple? I guess we'll never know. All I can say is I recommend it for anyone who doesn't have enough to worry about already.
The release of Wright's medical thriller about a devastating global pandemic was certainly well timed, coming out just as COVID-19 swept across the planet. I finished this novel on Thanksgiving - a day when I'm guessing many families, despite dire warnings from doctors and scientists, gathered together to share warmth, togetherness, and viruses. What happens next will not be pleasant, but I hope that it will be nothing like what is detailed within the pages of this book.
Wright's book is obviously well researched, but it reads like a novel written by a man more used to writing nonfiction; the facts and science are more important than the characters and the dialogue, BUT - it's still a fascinating and compelling read. I've not read many books on the subject of pandemics, but the author seems to get it right here. As in the nonfictional The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus, valuable time is wasted while various agencies argue over who will take the lead:
"Who's in charge," Henry asked.
"Everybody," Marco said.
Exactly what Henry had feared.
And, during whose administration does this fictional pandemic occur?
She was shown into the family quarters upstairs, and taken to the Cosmetology Room, a place she had never heard of, white and brightly lit, with a shelf full of cosmetics and brushes and a professional hair dryer. A tanning bed was fitted against the wall.
Take a wild guess . . .
What leadership? Tildy thought. The president had been almost entirely absent in the debate about how to deal with the contagion, except to blame the opposing party for ignoring public health needs before he took office.
Wow. I seem to recall that is exactly what happened, only with more golfing.
While this is not a great book, it is a definite page-turner. If not for the current crisis, would it have disappeared without much of a ripple? I guess we'll never know. All I can say is I recommend it for anyone who doesn't have enough to worry about already.
May 27, 2020
Lawrence Wright explains the history and tenacity of viruses that humans have encountered. Through the undeveloped plot and lightweight characters, he illustrates how a pandemic can start a domino effect and then how society goes to hell in a hand basket. I found the references to Russian and Chinese organized attacks via cyber sabotage and the Chinese lack of transparency during outbreaks to be the most interesting and frightening. Since I Googled to fact check these underground activities, I expect the NSA, CIA, FBI, and the Sheriff to come a-knockin’ shortly ;)
May 24, 2020
Want to know even more about viruses and pandemics? Wright’s latest novel will provide you with the history of both. He incorporates accounts of major epidemics, descriptions of Russian biowarfare capabilities, and other nonfiction facts. As long as the novel sticks to the pandemic plot-line, the book is excellent. It is striking how close the details of the unfolding pandemic in the novel parallel our own COVID-19 experience. Makes one wonder why the U.S. wasn’t more prepared if all this information was out there for any researcher to uncover.
Unfortunately, Wright uses the Kongoli flu pandemic as only one aspect of his thriller. There are disreputable scientists turned ecofascists, geopolitical shenanigans, and conspiracy theories that defy believability. He should have just focused on the pandemic story-line where his stellar research shines.
Unfortunately, Wright uses the Kongoli flu pandemic as only one aspect of his thriller. There are disreputable scientists turned ecofascists, geopolitical shenanigans, and conspiracy theories that defy believability. He should have just focused on the pandemic story-line where his stellar research shines.
October 31, 2020
This is a particularly wide-ranging mixed bag for me. I'd give it 5 stars alone for the devotion to real politics, real name-dropping, real virology and science, and a happy (and scary) look at just how badly the world can (AND DID) handle a pandemic.
Indeed, so much about this novel is so right on target that I would have sworn it was written DURING OUR pandemic while following all the ins and outs of the insanity of 2020. And who knows? Maybe a good deal of it was worked into the near-final manuscript. It doesn't really matter. What we've got here is a very Cook novel full of real science and politics even if some of the politics is more "in the spirit of" rather than the actual state of things. The point is that it gets REALLY close. So much so it feels almost like the real damn deal.
That's the good bits.
The bad is, well, pretty bad. The very things that I liked most about this novel, the focus on the endless science, sometimes drowned out any sense of the underlying tale. And while the devolution into an apocalyptic setting was quite cool, the fundamental resolution and goofy super-thriller-type heroism made me roll my eyes A LOT.
Let me put it this way: if it was all that super-thriller-type Borne or Ethan Hunt or Jack Ryan story from the beginning, I probably wouldn't have forced a higher bar on this fiction. I just would have treated it as a goofy popcorn flic. But it wasn't. It held itself to a pretty high and accurate standard for a great deal of the book. The result was kinda jarring and disappointing.
But don't let that get you down! This book has a lot of good bits in it if you're not already sick and tired of the REAL pandemic. But then, maybe reading this to see just HOW bad it might still become is quite worthwhile. :)
Indeed, so much about this novel is so right on target that I would have sworn it was written DURING OUR pandemic while following all the ins and outs of the insanity of 2020. And who knows? Maybe a good deal of it was worked into the near-final manuscript. It doesn't really matter. What we've got here is a very Cook novel full of real science and politics even if some of the politics is more "in the spirit of" rather than the actual state of things. The point is that it gets REALLY close. So much so it feels almost like the real damn deal.
That's the good bits.
The bad is, well, pretty bad. The very things that I liked most about this novel, the focus on the endless science, sometimes drowned out any sense of the underlying tale. And while the devolution into an apocalyptic setting was quite cool, the fundamental resolution and goofy super-thriller-type heroism made me roll my eyes A LOT.
Let me put it this way: if it was all that super-thriller-type Borne or Ethan Hunt or Jack Ryan story from the beginning, I probably wouldn't have forced a higher bar on this fiction. I just would have treated it as a goofy popcorn flic. But it wasn't. It held itself to a pretty high and accurate standard for a great deal of the book. The result was kinda jarring and disappointing.
But don't let that get you down! This book has a lot of good bits in it if you're not already sick and tired of the REAL pandemic. But then, maybe reading this to see just HOW bad it might still become is quite worthwhile. :)
May 4, 2020
... 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 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.
December 15, 2020
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 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.
Even during a terrifying pandemic, I still enjoy medical thrillers, even this one about 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.
July 10, 2020
For its prescient parallels to the current pandemic, the awesomeness of its research and use of fact to create a chillingly-real fictional world, I award The End of October five bright shiny stars. The first half of this medical thriller had me enthralled. I wore out my neck by nodding in recognition at the dimwitted vice president who is tapped to lead the White House crisis team, to the runs on stores, the frustration of public health officials at the brain-blowingly bungled response from the administration, the decimated Dow, quarantines, PPE... Wright's pandemic plundered world fares far worse, at least in the short-term, from its virulent flu virus than ours has from coronavirus- hundreds of millions dead around the world, a complete breakdown of society. Dead bodies piled up in the streets, lawlessness, civilian militias, starvation. Eventually even the electric grid fails.
The second half, where it diverts from depicting the collapse of civilization to myriad subplots of a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a crazy band of violent animal rights activists, and of course, cyberterrorism and Russia, gets pretty mucky. It's like you're playing a game of Risk and someone drops a meat lovers pizza in the middle of the board. It's just a mess and I wouldn't blame you for dumping the whole kit and caboodle in the rubbish bin.
Wright's protagonist is a most unlikely action hero: Henry Parsons, a doctor and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official. Parsons suffered from rickets as a child, leaving him physically vulnerable, but he acquits himself with aplomb through desert car chases and submarine escapes. There is a large cast of characters here, but rest assured, this plague has a 50%+ mortality rate. Most everyone you meet on the page will end of up dead.
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer. This book will keep you up at night. At least until it puts you to sleep. A great work of literature it is not. A heart-stopping, blood-chilling examination of the inevitable, the very inevitable we are all now living, it is. Proceed with caution. And a very large gin martini.
The second half, where it diverts from depicting the collapse of civilization to myriad subplots of a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a crazy band of violent animal rights activists, and of course, cyberterrorism and Russia, gets pretty mucky. It's like you're playing a game of Risk and someone drops a meat lovers pizza in the middle of the board. It's just a mess and I wouldn't blame you for dumping the whole kit and caboodle in the rubbish bin.
Wright's protagonist is a most unlikely action hero: Henry Parsons, a doctor and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official. Parsons suffered from rickets as a child, leaving him physically vulnerable, but he acquits himself with aplomb through desert car chases and submarine escapes. There is a large cast of characters here, but rest assured, this plague has a 50%+ mortality rate. Most everyone you meet on the page will end of up dead.
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer. This book will keep you up at night. At least until it puts you to sleep. A great work of literature it is not. A heart-stopping, blood-chilling examination of the inevitable, the very inevitable we are all now living, it is. Proceed with caution. And a very large gin martini.
November 3, 2020
4.5 rounded down, since I’m sparing with 5-star ratings. Roxane Gay found this novel problematic & poorly written, but as it happens, I couldn’t get through Bad Feminist despite being one myself because she comes off as having such a giant chip on her shoulder she reminds me of my obese abused & spiteful mother too much, so like, whatever, Roxane.
A pandemic situation eerily close to our own, but with much more sinister implications (or so one fervently hopes). One of my favourite novels this year. I’m too often underwhelmed by thrillers, which are plot driven & aren’t believable in any way, and while this novel certainly isn’t a literary masterpiece, it delivers the goods. The author explains many of the mechanisms and the history of pandemics, which some readers found tedious, but for me was a great part of the interest. The story is well told, with good pacing that kept me rapt. The epidemiologist at the heart of the tale is a man of limited physical resources and deep spiritual scars, putting a nice spin on the whole concept of the virile, strong & stoic hero. Recommend if you can handle considering how much worse things could get.
A pandemic situation eerily close to our own, but with much more sinister implications (or so one fervently hopes). One of my favourite novels this year. I’m too often underwhelmed by thrillers, which are plot driven & aren’t believable in any way, and while this novel certainly isn’t a literary masterpiece, it delivers the goods. The author explains many of the mechanisms and the history of pandemics, which some readers found tedious, but for me was a great part of the interest. The story is well told, with good pacing that kept me rapt. The epidemiologist at the heart of the tale is a man of limited physical resources and deep spiritual scars, putting a nice spin on the whole concept of the virile, strong & stoic hero. Recommend if you can handle considering how much worse things could get.
Read
June 30, 2020The Hook It seems like yesterday but is now many years ago that I listened to my first podcast episode of
Books On The Nightstand hosted by Ann Kingman & Michael Kindness. Though friends both had a lot of Readers' Advisory or book talk skills as Sales Reps for Random House, now Penguin Random House. The first episode was on March 26, 2008 in July of 2016. Over the years I grew very fond of both hosts, their easy camaraderie, their polished podcast format and their stellar recommendations. Thank heavens neither has totally disappeared or abandoned their many many fans. To this day, they recommend at book, I listen. In April Ann Kingman, always my go-to woman for a good thriller, gave a shout out on Facebook for the book, The End of October, which she claimed as her impetus to stocking up on supplies like, toilet paper, and food, when she was an early reader of this virus sweeps the world novel. Written and published well before we were in the throes of COVID-19, it reminds me of a Jules Verne novel written on the cusp of its time. Due to its subject matter this read would not be for everyone. It vividly captures the escalating terror of our world battling a virus without a vaccine, one that is called novel.
The Line - ”The new President, still sheltering in the vast Mount Weather bunker with other senior officials, issued a reassuring statement on the Emergency Alert-System that a cure was on the horizon, stores would soon be open again, the baseball season would resume--all lies, as everyone new, but respectfully reported.”
The Sinker - Taking into account what hooked me on this book, read it if you dare.
Those that follow me know I'd rather give you a brief summary than outlining the whole story. That said, I've really given you all you need to consider The End of October or not. Though I feel the best medical thrillers are non-fiction; balancing on the truth is stranger or more horrific than fiction can emulate, The End of October will make you squirm, sit up and take notice, and may even deliver a wake up call with its agenda. It's good but bad.
Recommended for fans of Michael Crichton, Michael Palmer, Richard Preston, Robin Cook or their successors. Not quite an apocalyptic novel, it definitely is a contender.
Lawrence Wright has a backlog of many titles, both fiction and non-fiction. One is certain to jump in my hands in the future.
Books On The Nightstand hosted by Ann Kingman & Michael Kindness. Though friends both had a lot of Readers' Advisory or book talk skills as Sales Reps for Random House, now Penguin Random House. The first episode was on March 26, 2008 in July of 2016. Over the years I grew very fond of both hosts, their easy camaraderie, their polished podcast format and their stellar recommendations. Thank heavens neither has totally disappeared or abandoned their many many fans. To this day, they recommend at book, I listen. In April Ann Kingman, always my go-to woman for a good thriller, gave a shout out on Facebook for the book, The End of October, which she claimed as her impetus to stocking up on supplies like, toilet paper, and food, when she was an early reader of this virus sweeps the world novel. Written and published well before we were in the throes of COVID-19, it reminds me of a Jules Verne novel written on the cusp of its time. Due to its subject matter this read would not be for everyone. It vividly captures the escalating terror of our world battling a virus without a vaccine, one that is called novel.
The Line - ”The new President, still sheltering in the vast Mount Weather bunker with other senior officials, issued a reassuring statement on the Emergency Alert-System that a cure was on the horizon, stores would soon be open again, the baseball season would resume--all lies, as everyone new, but respectfully reported.”
The Sinker - Taking into account what hooked me on this book, read it if you dare.
Those that follow me know I'd rather give you a brief summary than outlining the whole story. That said, I've really given you all you need to consider The End of October or not. Though I feel the best medical thrillers are non-fiction; balancing on the truth is stranger or more horrific than fiction can emulate, The End of October will make you squirm, sit up and take notice, and may even deliver a wake up call with its agenda. It's good but bad.
Recommended for fans of Michael Crichton, Michael Palmer, Richard Preston, Robin Cook or their successors. Not quite an apocalyptic novel, it definitely is a contender.
Lawrence Wright has a backlog of many titles, both fiction and non-fiction. One is certain to jump in my hands in the future.
May 4, 2020
There is a fascination in reading a pandemic novel during a pandemic - yes - but that doesn’t save this novel. Thin bland characters, lumbering dialogue, and everywhere there should be momentum there’s only inertia
The book pauses at one point to tell us that the lead male is a considerate and patient lover.....that about sums it up - wayward unfocused writing.
A real shame
The book pauses at one point to tell us that the lead male is a considerate and patient lover.....that about sums it up - wayward unfocused writing.
A real shame
March 13, 2023
The world doesn’t need one more person writing about just how prescient this book is, so I will focus instead on what didn’t quite hit the target.
I admire Lawrence Wright’s narrative non-fiction writing for the wonderful novelistic flair that he brings to it. The Looming Tower is impressively informative while reading like a thriller. To his novel, The End of October, Wright brings a journalistic flair. I think it works better the other way around.
The setting of The End of October is pretty much the world as we know it. The American president has a tanning bed, Putin is a major actor, the swine flu happened in 2009, etc. The third person narrator takes pains to describe real historical events and their implications for the novel’s characters. I found these lengthy non-fiction digressions jarring. Not only did they break the momentum of the plot, they also made me feel confused about what, in the world of the novel, was real and what wasn’t.
Dwight Garner described The End of October as “a Tom Clancy book written by an intellectual.” I can agree with that statement. The novel is clearly well-researched. The problem is with the narration. Sometimes Wright's narrator tells us something that should simply be shown. And, at other points, more telling is sorely needed. The characters' interior worlds are pretty dim.
There is also the occasional cheese-ball line:
“I’m not just talking about containing a pandemic,” he said in a low, even voice. “I’m talking about saving civilization!”
And awkward simile:
“…the smells of nature wrapping around her like smoke from a camp fire.” Nope, this doesn't work. Because a camp fire has its own wonderfully potent smell, trying to think of nature smells wrapping around me like camp fire smoke just hurts my brain.
I really like Lawrence Wright. In five years’ time, I sincerely hope that he is the one writing the fast-paced narrative non-fiction account of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic in all of its weirdness. He’s clearly the man for the job. I think I'll pass on his future novels, though.
I admire Lawrence Wright’s narrative non-fiction writing for the wonderful novelistic flair that he brings to it. The Looming Tower is impressively informative while reading like a thriller. To his novel, The End of October, Wright brings a journalistic flair. I think it works better the other way around.
The setting of The End of October is pretty much the world as we know it. The American president has a tanning bed, Putin is a major actor, the swine flu happened in 2009, etc. The third person narrator takes pains to describe real historical events and their implications for the novel’s characters. I found these lengthy non-fiction digressions jarring. Not only did they break the momentum of the plot, they also made me feel confused about what, in the world of the novel, was real and what wasn’t.
Dwight Garner described The End of October as “a Tom Clancy book written by an intellectual.” I can agree with that statement. The novel is clearly well-researched. The problem is with the narration. Sometimes Wright's narrator tells us something that should simply be shown. And, at other points, more telling is sorely needed. The characters' interior worlds are pretty dim.
There is also the occasional cheese-ball line:
“I’m not just talking about containing a pandemic,” he said in a low, even voice. “I’m talking about saving civilization!”
And awkward simile:
“…the smells of nature wrapping around her like smoke from a camp fire.” Nope, this doesn't work. Because a camp fire has its own wonderfully potent smell, trying to think of nature smells wrapping around me like camp fire smoke just hurts my brain.
I really like Lawrence Wright. In five years’ time, I sincerely hope that he is the one writing the fast-paced narrative non-fiction account of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic in all of its weirdness. He’s clearly the man for the job. I think I'll pass on his future novels, though.
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