The End of October: A novel

by Lawrence Wright Narrated by Mark Bramhall

Overview

“An eerily prescient novel about a devastating virus that begins in Asia before going global . . . A page-turner that has the earmarks of an instant bestseller.” -New York Post
 
“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

“This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre.” -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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.

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2020 - AudioFile

Narrator Mark Bramhall keeps to a firm pace in a story that is often heavily factual and scientific. Many listeners are already familiar with Lawrence Wright’s own narration of his prize-winning LOOMING TOWER, which charted the events leading up to 9/11. Wright’s new novel about the global spread of a killer virus couldn’t be better—or worse—timed, and for that alone benefits from the choice of an experienced narrator. Bramhall animates a storyline that’s all too real, and all too close to home, and he lends intimacy and immediacy to the epic melodrama that has now become present reality. Any other time—even six months ago—this would have been an urgent cautionary tale. Now, alas, it’s the morning’s news. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

A swift and all-too-convincing chronicle of science, espionage, action and speculation that moves from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia to the U.S. as it eerily evokes real-life current events.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“A fast-paced thriller with big, sweeping, made-for-the-adapted-screenplay action sequences. . . . The End of October is the perfect novel for a long airplane flight or a beach chair.” 
—NPR

“A maniacal page-turner. . . . It read[s] as if it’s been shot out of a cannon.”
—The New York Times

“[Wright] applies the magisterial force of his reporting skills into spinning a novel of pestilence, war, and social collapse that, given the current pandemic, cuts exceedingly close to the bone. . . . Chilling.” 
—The New York Times Book Review
 
“[The End of October] imagines a global pandemic in which an unfamiliar virus works its way around the world, leaving economic meltdown, conspiracy theories, and mass death in its wake. . . . The propulsive plot is counterweighted with rigorous, gracefully presented context on the history and behavior of diseases.” 
—The Atlantic
 
“A deeply researched scenario-play of a novel told in brisk, unsparing prose. . . . There’s a compulsive thrill to reading a book which grazes, and then runs off with, our increasingly ungraspable reality.” 
—The Guardian
  
“Some works of fiction seem ripped from the headlines. Others anticipate the news, providing a prophetic vision of our future. Lawrence Wright's new novel, The End of October, belongs in the rare second category.” 
—CNN
 
“What makes The End of October compelling to read right now is that Wright researched the hell out of what kind of infrastructure the US would need to survive a pandemic. He concluded that we did not have it. And then he drew on his formidable knowledge of domestic and international politics to imagine what would ensue. . . . Wright is undoubtedly a gifted reporter and observer of the world.” 
—Vox
 
“Harrowing. . . . Wright is excellent at gracefully working the science of viruses into the narrative. . . . The second half is almost pure action—pure, heart-stopping action. . . . This book will wake you up, and keep you awake.” 
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
“As captivating as it is disorienting. . . . Even taken as speculative fiction, the author approaches his subject with gravity befitting the stakes. . . . Throughout, Wright keeps the various threads pulled taut—medicine, military matters, international intrigue, economics.”
—The Texas Observer
 
“A thriller for our times. . . . Like all good thrillers, The End of October diverts us from the real world while keeping a firm base there, letting us imagine not only disaster but the ways out of it.” 
—Tampa Bay Times
 
“[A] multifaceted thriller . . . Wright pulls few punches and imbues even walk-on characters with enough humanity that their fate will matter to readers. This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre.” 
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

MAY 2020 - AudioFile

Narrator Mark Bramhall keeps to a firm pace in a story that is often heavily factual and scientific. Many listeners are already familiar with Lawrence Wright’s own narration of his prize-winning LOOMING TOWER, which charted the events leading up to 9/11. Wright’s new novel about the global spread of a killer virus couldn’t be better—or worse—timed, and for that alone benefits from the choice of an experienced narrator. Bramhall animates a storyline that’s all too real, and all too close to home, and he lends intimacy and immediacy to the epic melodrama that has now become present reality. Any other time—even six months ago—this would have been an urgent cautionary tale. Now, alas, it’s the morning’s news. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177531731
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	04/28/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Dear Readers,
 
The events depicted in The End of October were meant to serve as a cautionary tale. But real life doesn’t always wait for warnings. As I write, the entire world is enveloped in a viral disease much like the one I imagined within these pages. 
 
It’s been said that the book is a kind of prophecy, but I see it simply as the result of careful research. I asked the question: what is the gravest threat to human civilization? Nuclear war and global warming are existential threats, but throughout history diseases have periodically capsized societies. A century has passed since the 1918 “Spanish” flu that killed between fifty and a hundred million people. What if something like that returned, in our time, where travel is rapid and cities are densely populated and public health has receded as a primary concern?
 
I have applied the same rigorous standards that I bring to my nonfiction. Nothing presented here as factual is invented. I interviewed many scientists and epidemiologists who are now at the forefront of America’s effort to constrain the pandemic. As for the geopolitics I describe, I merely extended trends I observed in the world to certain logical conclusions. I spoke to top government officials and military figures. Everyone I spoke to shared the concerns I expressed herein—something like this could happen. And now it has.
 
Of course, this book is a novel. One with heroes and villains and a clock ticking in the background. It was exciting to research and to write, and what I learned gave me hope about our institutions and the people who are working to shield us from catastrophe. I was particularly impressed by the ingenuity and courage of the people who have dedicated their lives to public health. It is to them that the novel is dedicated.
 
I hope you enjoy it.
 
Lawrence Wright

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