Pandemic novels where the world comes apart

A DEADLY VIRUS. QUARANTINE. A WORLD IN LOCKDOWN. THE THRILLER THAT PREDICTED IT ALL. THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Flies thrillingly, eerily close to reality' Guardian 'This page-turner... is riveting and spookily anticipates much that has unfolded in reality' Sunday Times A race-against-time thriller, as one man must find the origin and cure for a new killer virus that has brought the world to its knees. At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with a mysterious fever. When Dr Henry Parsons - microbiologist and 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. As international tensions rise and governments enforce unprecedented measures, Henry finds himself in a race against time to track the source and find a cure - before it's too late . . . *** 'Eerily prescient . Too bad our leaders lack his foresight.' The New York Times 'Featuring accounts of past plagues and pandemics, descriptions of pathogens and how they work, and dark notes about global warming, the book produces deep shudders . . . A disturbing, eerily timed novel.' Kirkus Reviews ' A compelling read up to the last sentence. Wright has come up with a story worthy of Michael Crichton . In an eerily calm, matter-of-fact way, and backed by meticulous research , he imagines what the world would actually be like in the grip of a devastating new virus.' Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone WHAT READERS ARE SAYING- '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!' 'Well-written and fast-paced. Most of all utterly, scarily, believable.' 'I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH, and actually much of what I learned has informed my understanding of our current coronavirus pandemic.' 'Very well written and researched, and an all-around fascinating story'

From Booklist: Jimmy is struggling to stay alive on a wreckage-littered Earth besieged by a brutal sun and overrun with smart and vicious test-tube-bred predators. Now calling himself Snowman (as in Abominable), he's preparing for an arduous scavenger expedition back to the formerly high-tech compound in which he lived and worked until the bioengineering industry ran amok and a catastrophic event put an end to civilization. Snowman is desperately lonely, but he isn't actually alone since he serves as guru for a strangely passive tribe unaware of the lost world of computers, bullet trains, Web porn, gene-splicing, and the plagues that Snowman so vividly and regretfully recalls. As Snowman remembers his friend, Crake, an emotionally remote genius, as well as the love of Snowman's life, an enigmatic survivor of childhood sexual abuse called Oryx, Atwood conjures a grim, all-too-plausible future in order to consider the possibly devastating consequences of our present ill-advised biotech pursuits. Rigorous in its chilling insights and riveting in its fast-paced "what if" dramatization, Atwood's superb novel is as brilliantly provocative as it is profoundly engaging.

A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope. From the mind of Chuck Wendig comes “a magnum opus . . . a story about survival that’s not just about you and me, but all of us, together” ( Kirkus Reviews , starred review). NOMINATED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Polygon Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead. For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them—and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them—the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart—or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world. In development for TV by Glen Mazzara, executive producer of The Walking Dead • Look for the sequel, Wayward, now available! “This career-defining epic deserves its inevitable comparisons to Stephen King’s The Stand .” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A suspenseful, twisty, satisfying, surprising, thought-provoking epic.” —Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Run Away “A true tour de force.” —Erin Morgenstern, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus “A masterpiece with prose as sharp and heartbreaking as Station Eleven .” —Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M “A magnum opus . . . It reminded me of Stephen King’s The Stand— but dare I say, this story is even better.” —James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Crucible “An inventive, fierce, uncompromising, stay-up-way-past-bedtime masterwork. ” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World “An American epic for these times.” —Charles Soule, author of The Oracle Year