When lockdown first began in March 2020, I received a ton of requests from people looking for pandemic novel recommendations. That was the last thing I wanted to read at the time! Now we’re a few years out and COVID has become an unfortunate part of our daily reality. I’ve read a number of novels featuring pandemics since then as more authors tackle this topic.
It’s worth acknowledging these novels aren’t for everyone. The topic might hit too close to home for a variety of reasons and that’s okay. For some readers, fiction can serve as a safe way to make sense of their own experiences, whether reading about characters experiencing lockdown, plague, or an extraterrestrial microorganism. That was true before COVID when we’d just imagine how we might respond and it’s true now, in a more real sense.
It’s been interesting to see how authors grapple with COVID in their fiction. Some ignore it completely, while others fully integrate it into the plot. There doesn’t seem to be one right way to handle it and I’m sure the way it’s explored in literature will continue to evolve over time. The list below includes historical fiction, science fiction, and contemporary fiction, covering a range of pandemics both real and imaginary. I’d love to hear your thoughts about pandemic novels and what you recommend along these lines in the comments.
20 novels about pandemics and COVID
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Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
Many readers expressed disinterest in reading a novel set during the Bubonic Plague, even before experiencing a pandemic firsthand, but this richly detailed account of one woman's mission to save lives and hold her village together has changed many a mind. Anna Frith works as a housemaid, but when an infected piece of cloth arrives in her remote English village and quickly infects her neighbors, what ultimately follows are heroic acts of healing, survival, and love. Inspired by a true story, this novel holds plenty for readers to discuss, right down to the shocking ending. More info →
Tom Lake
This is the novel I didn't know I was longing to read, with its tender familial relationships, Michigan cherry orchard setting, and insider look at summer stock theater. When Lara is nearing sixty and the pandemic is just beginning, her three adult daughters return home for the summer. The girls have long romanticized their mother’s once-upon-a-time romance with a megastar actor, and now, all together again, the girls direct Lara to tell them the whole story from the beginning. She unspools her story slowly, over three long weeks harvesting cherries on the family property. I’m still not sure how I feel about the ending, but this story? Absolutely gorgeous. I re-read it via the audiobook, which is narrated by Meryl Streep. Yes, THAT Meryl Streep. More info →
The Dog Stars
A pilot named Hig is one of the few survivors of a devastating flu. But when he receives a random transmission on the radio, he begins to dream of what might exist beyond life on the hangar. I found this to be a captivating story, and a tender examination of the landscape between hope and despair. More info →
How High We Go in the Dark
Set in 2030, this debut climate fiction follows scientists in Siberia who discover the preserved remains of a girl. She appears to have died of an ancient virus. A virus that is highly contagious once thawed, unleashing a global Arctic Plague. From there, the story explores the way we respond and adapt to tragedy, as well as the impact on our planet. As some cities and states fall underwater, other areas build funerary skyscrapers and euthanasia amusement parks. Scientists try to create artificial organs for transplant, while others look for a new planet. It is as much about these changes as it is about what ties and connects our humanity to each other. More info →
As Bright as Heaven
Pauline Bright and her husband are newly arrived in Philadelphia with their three daughters; they hope to give their girls a chance at a better life. But shortly after arriving in Philadelphia, the great illness that came to be known as the Spanish flu meets them in their new city, bringing loss and heartache in its wake. But there's also hope, as the family takes in a baby orphaned by the illness. Back when Meissner was writing this book, the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic was little known to contemporary readers, despite the 50 million people who died. Now we've seen a pandemic firsthand and witnessed countless charts, graphs, and comparisons to the past. More info →
Joan Is Okay
In this first person, character-driven narrative, we meet thirtysomething ICU doctor Joan. Her relationships with her Chinese and Chinese American family members are fraught, and her inability to read cues makes friendship and neighborliness tricky, but her great love for her work is utterly uncomplicated—that is, until her father dies. Her workaholism has always been seen as an attribute in her NYC hospital, but when she takes just 48 hours off to fly to Shanghai and back for his funeral, HR steps in and makes her take some extended time off. Without the distraction of work, Joan is forced to reckon with the things she's been avoiding, in all their complexity and ambiguity. But then COVID-19 enters the story, with devastating effects in her personal and professional life. I so appreciated being let into Joan's interior world: her cool assessments of the people around her, her dry (and sometimes unintentional) humor, and her frank reckoning with individual and societal struggles. Catherine Ho's excellent audiobook narration was a wonderful way to experience this story. (This is our
Hamnet
In this award-winning novel, Maggie O’Farrell takes a few historically known facts about Shakespeare’s wife and family and, from this spare skeleton, builds out a lush, vivid world. This book is devastating (I know I'm not alone in consuming the better part of a box of Kleenex while reading it). Yet with O'Farrell's sympathetic central character and evocative storytelling, you won't want to leave Shakespeare’s world. The story centers on Agnes, Shakespeare’s wife, who is torn apart by grief when their son Hamnet dies from the Black Death plague at age 11. Soon after, Shakespeare writes Hamlet—and O’Farrell convincingly posits that the two events are closely tied. In her distinctive style, O’Farrell takes you to the heart of what really matters in life, making you feel such a deep sense of loss for Hamnet that you won’t look at your own life the same way. More info →
Dayswork: A Novel
This is a weird, genre-bending little book, co-written by a husband and wife writing team, about a husband and wife trapped at home with their children in the early days of the pandemic while the wife researches Herman Melville. They discuss the historical tidbits she digs up, Moby Dick commentary from other writers, the troubles with Zoom school, and their own relationship and the pressures creativity sometimes puts on it. The overall effect is not like anything I've read before: it's a slice-of-life story, a book about books, literary criticism and history all rolled into one, with more besides. Tone-wise, it most reminds me of Susan Conley's Landslide. Strange and fascinating, with paragraphs and factoids I couldn't resist occasionally reading aloud to anyone in the vicinity. (Fun fact: team member Leigh read Moby Dick a chapter a day with friends as an early pandemic project and that was enough Melville for her.) More info →
Songs for the End of the World
This book moves back and forth in time and between perspectives as it follows a first responder in New York, a pregnant singer, and an author, all living through a global pandemic (yes, you read that right.) This story of resilience and hope struck just the right notes for me. The audiobook is narrated by a full cast including Alex Payton-Beesley, Amelia Sargisson, and more. More info →
All That’s Left in the World
In this YA post-apocalyptic novel, two teen boys connect after most of the world’s population succumbed to a deadly virus, including their loved ones. Andrew is injured and starved when he happens upon Jamie’s house. They have every reason not to trust each other in this dangerous new world but they forge a tentative bond while they shelter together. But there’s no such thing as safety for long and they have to flee. As they do their best to survive, they’ll have to navigate secrets and whether to take a risk on romance. My daughter absolutely loved this one. More info →
The Cellist
In this fast-moving novel, Allon recruits the titular cellist—a savvy banker by day—to go undercover in order to bust a corrupt Russian billionaire. Silva often weaves current events into his stories: the coronavirus is ever-present in these pages, and in his Author's Note, Silva explains he wrote an entirely new ending after the January 6 Capitol siege. It felt a little long in places, but I still enjoyed this story of revenge, money, and power; I especially admired the smart sense of humor and recurring motif of improvisation. (This is the 21st book in Silva's long-running Gabriel Allon series; purists may disagree but I think you can jump in anywhere.) More info →
The Andromeda Strain
Crichton’s classic thriller about a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism has staying power. When the US government ignores a warning about insufficient decontamination procedures for returning space probes, the repercussions are deadly. A satellite falls and lands in a remote part of Arizona, subsequently killing everyone in a nearby town. And that’s only the beginning. More info →
The Sentence
By turns delightful and dreadful, this is set inside the very real independent bookstore Birchbark Books, owned by novelist Louise Erdrich, and takes place from November 2019 to November 2020. Wonderful and beautiful and at times laugh-out-loud funny, but also heart-stopping in its descriptions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd (which took place just a few miles away). Avid readers take note: this book about books includes more than 150 book recommendations, which are thoughtfully compiled in an appendix. Make sure to take a look at the back matter, or download the audiobook supplement if you read in that format, as I did. More info →
Severance: A Novel
Candace Chen, a second-generation immigrant, works for a publisher in Manhattan and is so committed to her daily routine, she doesn’t even notice the plague that wipes out almost everyone in NYC. Healthy but alone, she eventually emerges to the abandoned city and is found by a small band of survivors led by a cultist. As they travel to the Facility, Candace must decide where true freedom lies. More info →
Sea of Tranquility
Station Eleven would be an obvious choice for this list but St. John Mandel’s most recent release is worth highlighting. There are three main threads: an exiled eighteen year old who hears an unusual sound while trekking the Canadian forest, an author whose book tour takes her to the moon, and a detective whose investigation will tie these tales together. We follow these characters from 1912 to 2401 in a unique story of space, time, art, and a pandemic. I was just as struck by the structure of Mandel’s work as I was by the character development. Her books, while quiet and character-centered—are surprisingly propulsive. I enjoyed this mind-bending and utterly unique novel on the physical page, but if you adore multiple narrators, try the audiobook for a fully immersive experience. More info →
Violeta
This sweeping epic begins on a stormy day in 1920. The titular heroine is born in the midst of the Spanish Flu—and tumultuous times have just begun for her family. Told in epistolary form, this novel almost reads like a juicy autobiography, following Violeta’s love affairs, heartbreaks, and responses to historical events. If you’ve never read any Allende, you can absolutely start here, then work your way back to see how she's influenced the historical fiction genre. More info →
The Stand
As in Station Eleven, the apocalypse comes in the form of a super-flu that wipes out 99% of the population, and leaves the others quickly choosing sides in a battle of good vs. evil. This is decidedly creepy but not scary like It or The Shining. It's been hanging out on my TBR list ever since I read and loved 11/22/63. More info →
Lucy by the Sea
I sat down with this book on a Saturday and read the entire thing all at once because I couldn't put it down. It is a pandemic story, following Lucy as she escapes with her companion from New York City to the coast of Maine. The conversations in this book are about the pandemic, but also about the fragility of life and what it means to be in relationship with others, and I found it touching, sad, but ultimately life-affirming. Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang touches on similar themes. More info →
Blindness
In Nobel Prize–winning author Saramago’s experimental South American novel, a “white blindness” epidemic hits a city card. The blind are sent to a mental hospital to try to contain the virus, leaving them vulnerable to theft and assault. It’s a powerful tale of us vs them, the blind vs the sighted, and what it means to keep your humanity in the face of the unknown. More info →
Romantic Comedy
Comedy writer Sally Millz is living the dream at her job at The Night Owls (think Saturday Night Live), if you overlook the fact that she’s overworked and underpaid and has to deal with sexism. After a male co-worker starts dating an actress who guest hosted on the show, Sally says that sort of thing could only happen to men. A smart, funny, not drop-dead gorgeous woman is never going to land like the high-wattage celebrity Sexiest Man of the Year guy. It just doesn't happen. Except the Universe takes that as a challenge and brings pop star Noah Brewster to the set. Sally dismisses their chemistry as a fluke but when the pandemic hits, they reconnect and realize there might be something more there. This is such a fun meta-romantic comedy. More info →
How do you feel about pandemic novels? What would you add to this list? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 15 absorbing nonfiction fiction books to inspire your inner scientist and 12 Feel-good fiction books you can read in an afternoon.
87 comments
I would add Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland. It’s all about how a bookshop manages to stay afloat financially during the COVID pandemic, as well as how it helped people to be happy. At first I thought that I wouldn’t enjoy a story about the pandemic because it was so recent and had been so hard but I found that this book was life affirming as well as being interesting and well written. A good plot and fabulous characters.
This is actually the second book in a series about the bookshop, the other is Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland. It’s a wonderful book about the life changing power of books and friends. They can be read independently of each other as stand alone novels.
I enjoyed both of these books too.
Thanks for this suggestion! Sounds great.
I’m a medievalist by training, so Year of Wonders was totally my jam, until I got to the ending. To me it felt implausible and forced, as though Brooks was up against a deadline and had to come up with something fast. The rest of the book is fabulous, though. For historical fiction lovers, I would also recommend The Weight of Ink, by Rachel Kadish. Plague isn’t the central theme, but it’s very important.
I wholeheartedly agree with you, Donna! I loved the entirety of Year of Wonders…until the end. When I discussed it in book club we were all left befuddled by the conclusion.
Now I need to reread Year of Wonders! I don’t remember being baffled by the ending, but I may have been.
I say that because I just finished reading Horse, also by Brooks. The story was told from numerous points of view, and I found the ending a somewhat disappointing (for some of the characters, at least). I wonder if unsatisfying endings are true of Brooks’s other novels?
I was transfixed by Lawrence Wright’s The End of October that came out April 2020, just as the pandemic was shutting everything down. With all its horror, Covid was much less horrific than the pandemic in this book. A friend who lives several states away read it with me and we absolutely freaked each other out with this book. Not an easy read but wow, was it riveting at that moment in time.
I agree, I read this book in Spring 2020 and talked to everyone I could about it. Even my doctor, behind a mask!
I LOVED this book! I read it in July of ’20 and could not put it down.
I loved “The Dog Stars.” I also enjoyed Jody Picoult’s “Wish You Were Here,” a sort-of pandemic book set in the Galapagos Islands.
Wish You Were Here actually made me gasp out loud 😉
I felt the same way! I was NOT in any way prepared for that plot twist!!!
Agreed and this is the first book I thought of for ‘set during a pandemic’.
I agree! I loved that book!
I agree – Wish You Were Here was a great read!
Yesss!!! Wish you were Here was awesome!
I highly recommend Wish You Were Here. I found it by accident and could not put it down!
Doctors and Friends by Kimmery Martin is also really excellent!
I second this recommendation.
Third! It was fantastic!
Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak is about a doctor who is exposed to a pandemic abroad and has to spend Christmas in quarantine with her family.
The End of October by Lawrence Wright should be on this list. I read it during the pandemic and kept looking up the author to figure out how he nailed the situation so perfectly. Add in a seemingly unconnected storyline about a Siberian quest, and I finished the book with chills up my arms and expletives out my mouth. It was that good.
I enjoyed The Last One by Alexandra Olivia. It begins with a person starting in a reality survival show, and then things start feeling a little off for the main contestant/ where did all the people go? Is this real? Are the producers messing with her? I’m not a reality TV fan but this take on the dystopian pandemic genre was so unique to me.
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is another book that handles pandemics. It starts out with a time traveling historian who accidentally arrives at a small town just as the black death is also arriving at the small town. She can’t go back home right away because unbeknownst to her, an influenza epidemic has broken out in her time and her friends cannot retrieve her.
It’s an interesting look at the ways a terrible illness can ravage a community, and that medical knowledge, both in the past and in the future, cannot fully protect us from illness and death.
I second this! I first read it nearly 30 years ago and still remember the emotional punch of that first read (I’ve re-read it since).
The Doomsday Book is one of my favorites!
I came to the comments to say The Doomsday Book! Some people feel like it’s a slow start, but I love the whole thing.
The Doomsday book is the first book I thought of when pandemic books were mentioned.
Unlike a lot of people, being locked down during the Covid pandemic had me seeking out pandemic stories. Doomsday Book was a re-read for me but the first one I went to. It wrecked me the first time I read it (long ago) and wrecked me again this time. Seeing how a modern, well-vaccinated time traveler manages with seeing all around her succumb to the Black Death made my heart ache for the health care workers living that reality every day.
Doomsday Book is one of my favorites
So glad this book made the list- it was the first book I reached for to reread in March 2020.
I found the Great Transition to be Amazing!
Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue takes place in a maternity ward in Dublin during the 1918 influenza outbreak. A really good book that has stuck with me for a long time.
The Pull of the Stars is excellent.
I cam here to say this. I read it at the height of the pandemic and The Pull of the Stars will stay with me for a long time.
The Pull of the Stars was soooo well done, so well written, I thought it was HUGELY good!!
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Myers, is a sci-fi YA series (first book – “Cinder”) in which a pandemic is a key “main character”. I’ve listened through the whole series 3 times at this point (including once during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, because for some reason that met my emotional/reading needs, even though it felt a little bit too on the nose). I find the books a bit flat on paper, but on audio, the narration is so good, it feels like I am watching a movie, but only with my ears. So I definitely recommend listening to them.
The Secret Life of Bees was a great pandemic read about the Spanish flu. And also Peter Heller’s The Guide.
Could this be The Murmur of Bees?
A book that I loved that I don’t hear a lot of talk about is Emma Donoghue’s The Pull of the Stars.
56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard is a thriller set in Ireland just as Covid-19 reaches the country. Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket and begin a relationship. When the lockdowns are set in place, they decide to move in together, instead of allowing the pandemic to keep them apart. When the police find a dead body in their shared apartment, it becomes clear that neither of them are exactly who they seem to be.
I forgot about 56 Days! Touche! Absolutely!
I read “Station Eleven” and “The Dreamers” when lockdowns first started in California, and we watched “Contagion” – everything felt so surreal in March 2020. I also reread “Year of Wonders.” The stories were all so extreme in their own ways. “Lucy by the Sea” is the only current COVID novel I’ve been able to get through without feeling triggered; I had to DNF “Romantic Comedy.” I had no idea there were so many pandemic novels – my TBR list just got a new shelf in Goodreads!
Oye! I know you say that Station Eleven would be a good pick, but it SHOULD have been in this list. I was entranced and absolutely loved how they immersed themselves into acting – it gave them purpose during very difficult times. The series did an amazing job as well (obviously the book is better!).
I fervently agree. Station Eleven is one of my all-time favorite books. I read it when it was first published and was so moved by the story. I didn’t think I could love the book any more until I read it during the pandemic, with a completely different lens. It’s a superb read, and while on-the-nose, should definitely be included in this list.
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim is set during the modern pandemic. It is a mystery novel but also a story about family, happiness and communication. It is one of my favorite recent books.
As a former bio major with an interest in epidemiology, I usually love this kind of fiction and have read several of these.
That said, I had the Station Eleven e-book on hold at the library and forgot that it was also set during/after a major epidemic. It became available around May of 2020 and that was not the best time to read this.
It was an interesting read and I do recommend it (just skip the poor HBO adaption), but as always, timing is everything. I was a bit more cautious with other books I’d had on hold for ages and only recently began to read more.
Tom Lake is one example and it is fantastic.
Isabel Allende’s latest, The Wind Knows My Name, also brings a pandemic into the plot; the novel ends during COVID.
I finished Jodi Picoult’s Wish You Were Here earlier this month, which centers around COVID, and am still thinking about it.
The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen is a good one. It’s a historical fiction novel about a town in the Pacific Northwest that quarantined itself during the 1918 influenza outbreak. Fearing both illness and war, the town decides to posts guards to keep people out. Choices have consequences and this book provides a good look at human behavior.
The Murmur of Bees, set in Mexico during the Spanish flu and Spanish Civil War is one of my all time favorite books.
Also, Happiness Falls has a little covid in the plot line.
I also loved The Murmur of Bees! Absolutely magical.
I’ve read many of these, and especially enjoyed The Sentence and Year of Wonders. I would add Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. I thought the characters in it were fascinating and appreciated that it’s ultimately a story of hope and the community a disparate group can build. I also was intrigued by Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult. Really interesting structure, I thought.
A few that I enjoyed were Tender Is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica. Not for the faint of heart! Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam and finally, A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher.
Wow, the same friend who read The End of October with me recommended Tender is the Flesh, but after reading what it was about I simply did not have the stomach (no pun intended). Though sometimes I look around at the casual cruelty and general unhinged behavior of people, and think it is all too plausible.
I really liked Jodi Piccoult’s “Wish you were Here” – it kept me intrigued the whole time.
I would add The Memory of Animals
By Claire Fuller
I love the book on here that I have read and plan to add several more to my To Be Read list.
For poetry fans, there is an anthology called Together in a Sudden Strangeness, America’s Poets Respond to the Pandemic that is edited by Alice Quinn. It came out in 2020 and got me through some confusing days and nights.
I read The End of October just as the pandemic started, and I didn’t know it was a pandemic book, so of course, I had to tell everyone about it! I think it was a Winter or Spring Preview book, wasn’t it?
Also, I started The Sentence last night. I haven’t gotten to the pandemic part, but I am loving it so far.
I loved A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker.
I am a nurse who worked during the height of the pandemic. A coworker of mine wrote a book telling her story during that time. It was a closing the loop story for me, highly recommend.
Everyone Just Breathe, by Amanda Peterson
It’s an old one, but a classic: The Decameron by Boccaccio. During a plague, 10 people isolate themselves away from others. To amuse themselves, each person must tell 10 stories. Long, but a must read.
Albert Camus, The Plague. Exceptionally compelling.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera. A modern classic.
I was always afraid of pandemic novels, but ironically I read both Station Eleven (couldn’t resist the Shakespeare tie-in) and Severence (a buddy read I didn’t feel I could get out of) in January and February of 2020. Then our pandemic came, and as soon as I realized things weren’t nearly as bad as they were in the books, I was so glad I had read them. Every time I started feeling sorry for myself I reminded myself that at least it wasn’t as bad those books, and it helped me through. U have since read several of the others that n this list and plan to read more. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite genre, but it’s an unexpectedly calming one for me.
Sorry about those typos 😬
“The Measure” by Nikki Erlick was such a a unique terrific book about the pandemic. Also Jodi Picoults “Wish You Were Here”.
I LOVED “A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World”!! I also read Daniel DeFoe’s “Journal of a Plague Year” from 1722. At the start of lockdown, plague-based books were the only thing I COULD bring myself to read. Everything else seemed so “trite” if you will. I still love the genre.
Also The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. Which I accidentally read during covid, but didn’t mean to – I was following along after reading a couple much more lighthearted books of hers (Bellweather, To Say Nothing of the Dog) and stumbled into a double plague plot!
Pete and Alice in Maine, by Caitlin Shetterly, is another book set in this Covid time period. A NYC family decides in one night that they are GETTING OUT OF NY and heading to their Maine camp. Maine is not especially happy to have possibly-infected New Yorkers flooding in to stay. (I remember that, I’m a Mainer!) It just chronicles a family as they hunker down in Maine and try to figure out how to manage, as well as dealing with a dying marriage. The camp is in a part of Maine that I’m very familiar with, so that was fun for me.
Our Country Friends: A Novel by Gary Shteyngart
“Grace Notes” by Karen Comer is a wonderful YA verse novel set in Melbourne (Australia) during the pandemic. About a young violinist and a street artist . Really good.
I would add The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman. It is about the Spanish Flu in Philadelphia and all that follows after. It was a sensational story that I enjoyed.
“The Hot Zone: the Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus” by Richard Preston is a terrific, fascinating book which shows that truth really is scarier than fiction. It’s non-fiction but really worth reading.
I want to recommend “Survivor Song” by Paul Tremblay and “A Prayer for the Dying” by Stewart O’Nan.
On the Beach by Nevill Shute. Very old, 1950’s. Not a pandemic, but the end of the world. Australians are watching the world shutting down and know they’ll be last
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While a pandemic is not the main focus of Lisa See’s historical fiction written during Covid lockdown, in her 2023 novel LADY TAN’S CIRCLE OF WOMEN several smallpox epidemics have big impact on life of title character, an actual woman doctor who lived in 15th century China when early form of vaccination called variolation was practiced.
Scene in See’s novel giving differing views on inoculation against small pox was probably intended to remind 21st century readers about differing views on Covid & other vaccinations, tho reason for choice by a woman who didn’t want it for her child & herself would probably not exist in our time.
On encouraging note, Wikipedia article on smallpox says “the World Heatlth Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980, making smallpox the only human disease to be eradicated.
Reminds me of recent MMD gift link article in January 12, 2024 issue of THE ATLANTIC magazine by academic historian Tiya Miles about science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. A few quotes:
Butler “was a trans-temporal thinker, looking backwards and forward at the same time, and recognizing that key features of the future lay just out of view in the past.”
Butler described “her innovative method, an approach to analyzing human relations based on history that would shape her unnervingly predictive fiction: ‘Histofuturist is my invention. An historian who extrapolates from the Human past and present as well as the technological past and present.'”
Her ideas, wheither other writers have consciously followed her lead or not, seem to influence trends such as Pandemic books.
I’ve read a lot of these but don’t forget an oldie. I reread “The Plague” by Camus during the pandemic and was astounded at how relevant the novel was to the world we were living in.
Sarah Moss, The Fell, is set during the Covid pandemic, while the UK was in lockdown. It’s brilliant, like all her books.
This is a great list and I’ve also seen some favorites in the comments. I’d like to add The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham, a classic about cholera. The female MC is a shallow selfish socialite who is initially horrible but is transformed through her contact with nuns caring for the sick, and her physician husband.
I would add “The Raven’s Gift” by Don Reardon. Takes place in remote Alaska, definitely has a very strong sense of place. It is excellent.
A Parcel of Patterns, written by Jill Paton Walsh (1983)
A small English village is exposed to the Plague by a contaminated package that arrived from London. Faced with the death of one person after another, disagreement among the community’s religious leaders, and individual struggles over which risks are worthwhile, the community eventually chooses to self-quarantine in order to protect those outside of their village. This is a school book for the kids that I read on my own. I had no idea what it was about when I pulled it off the shelf, so it was interesting to read during our own country’s experience with COVID-19.
I forgot to say that I read the book in May 2020, which is when I wrote that little summary. It was totally coincidental that I read it at the start of all the pandemic stuff.
Jody Picoult’s “Wish You Were Here” was the most astounding pandemic novel I’ve read so far. The twist in the middle of the book will leave you thunderstruck! Read it next. Highly recommend!
I thought I should say a bit about the books on your list that I have read. Sea of Tranquility was an interesting plot with the time aspect. Lucy by the Sea was a wonderful character study, and thought provoking. I did not like Blindness by Saramago at all, it was a bit too “Lord of the Flies” for my taste. Year of Wonders was a good choice for a book club, so much to discuss in terms of the themes of survival and humanity. Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain gave a glimpse into the future of biological warfare, but didn’t delve into pandemic themes as much, only the prevention of it.
I’ll take a look at a few of the others, as I am interested in reading more about that time in our lives. It seems like a distant memory, and I am losing the sense of the seemingly endless days of nothing to do and no one to see. I wrote several blog posts about keeping connections that year. I recently went back to re-read them, but it still seems like it is so far in the past. But really, it wasn’t that long ago.
You must add “THE SMALLEST THING” by Lisa Manterfield! Written before COVID (published 2017), it is a novel about a modern-day plague and quarantine in Eyam, the “plague village” in the UK. I read it when it first came out and found it thought-provoking: What kind of neighbor would I be if a plague came to my town? Would I stay or try to escape? Would I be courageous? I re-read it when we first started sheltering in place, and it is eerily prescient. Plus, it’s a great story with intriguing characters and a yummy romance. A total page-turner!
“The Book of the Unnamed Midwife” is also very good, although I would suggest checking out possible trigger warnings for some because, as a woman, this book can be chilling. Again, it centers around a flu-like plague that kills most of the population–but almost all victims are women and children, so you can imagine how that can turn out for the few women left. But the protagonist is a woman navigating this world with intentions of helping the other women. It’s really quite the page turner.