Crisis in the Red Zone

The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come

By: Richard Preston

Narrated by: Ray Porter

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An urgent wake-up call about the future of emerging viruses and a gripping account of the doctors and scientists fighting to protect us, told through the story of the deadly 2013–2014 Ebola epidemic

“Crisis in the Red Zone reads like a thriller. That the story it tells is all true makes it all more terrifying.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction

From the #1 bestselling author of The Hot Zone, now a National Geographic original miniseries . . .

This time, Ebola started with a two-year-old child who likely had contact with a wild creature and whose entire family quickly fell ill and died. The ensuing global drama activated health professionals in North America, Europe, and Africa in a desperate race against time to contain the viral wildfire. By the end—as the virus mutated into its deadliest form, and spread farther and faster than ever before—30,000 people would be infected, and the dead would be spread across eight countries on three continents.

In this taut and suspenseful medical drama, Richard Preston deeply chronicles the pandemic, in which we saw for the first time the specter of Ebola jumping continents, crossing the Atlantic, and infecting people in America. Rich in characters and conflict—physical, emotional, and ethical—Crisis in the Red Zone is an immersion in one of the great public health calamities of our time.

Preston writes of doctors and nurses in the field putting their own lives on the line, of government bureaucrats and NGO administrators moving, often fitfully, to try to contain the outbreak, and of pharmaceutical companies racing to develop drugs to combat the virus. He also explores the charged ethical dilemma over who should and did receive the rare doses of an experimental treatment when they became available at the peak of the disaster.

Crisis in the Red Zone makes clear that the outbreak of 2013–2014 is a harbinger of further, more severe outbreaks, and of emerging viruses heretofore unimagined—in any country, on any continent. In our ever more interconnected world, with roads and towns cut deep into the jungles of equatorial Africa, viruses both familiar and undiscovered are being unleashed into more densely populated areas than ever before.

The more we discover about the virosphere, the more we realize its deadly potential. Crisis in the Red Zone is an exquisitely timely book, a stark warning of viral outbreaks to come.

Critic reviews

“Richard Preston’s red zone—beset by ethical, medical, and epidemiological quandaries—shows us at our worst and at our best. This is a story about people, not pathogens, but, even as Preston focuses on one group of clinicians, nurses, and scientists at an underresourced hospital in West Africa, he makes devastatingly clear the worldwide fragility of our public-health systems. Global inequities have epidemiological consequences. This chronicle is haunting, yet not without hope. In spare, gripping prose, he illuminates how our interlinked age can make for enormous vulnerability—but also resilience.”—Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy and law, New York University

“Crisis in the Red Zone reads like a thriller. That the story it tells is all true makes it all more terrifying, and there’s no one who could tell it better than Richard Preston.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Excellent Deep Dive

Having heard of Ebola in movies like Outbreak, and of course living through COVID 19, this is a fascinating nonfiction tale of what a truly deadly disease epidemic is like. There are a few brief moments of “storytelling,” when accounts of individuals’ lives outside of the outbreak are shared, but otherwise this is definitively nonfiction. Yet, it is in no way a dry read/listen. Preston’s accounting of the Ebola tragedies is accurate and compelling.
Ray Porter is one of the best narrators in any genre, and I am thankful that his work on this book drew me to purchase it

Outstanding

Absolutely riveting!!! Preston traces the history of Ebola & examines its origins through the telling of personal stories, most specifically the latest outbreak that occurred in 2013-14. It’s such a powerful first hand account especially given the past 2.5 years we’ve just lived through. Once again I’m awed by the medical workers, specifically nurses & doctors who risk their lives in order to save, treat & care for others. Outstanding audio. Excellent narrative. Would make for excellent bookclub discussion!

riveting

I get so much insight into various entities, both medical and political. I am enthralled with the story.

Great information! Well told!

Fascinating to learn about Ebola. Narration was well done and there's much to be learned about how we handled the Ebola virus outbreak! Excellent!!

Compelling

I love the detail he writes about everyone involved. The dead are brought back to life and those who lived to tell the tale feel like I know them personally. Getting to know these people is both very wonderful and heartbreaking, especially since some of them died heroically trying to stop the virus.