The End of October

By: Lawrence Wright

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

A DEADLY VIRUS. QUARANTINE. A WORLD IN LOCKDOWN. THE THRILLER THAT PREDICTED IT ALL.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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 . . .

©2020 Lawrence Wright (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"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 best seller." (New York Post)

"Eerily prescient. Too bad our leaders lack his foresight." (The New York Times)

"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)

A Prescient Novel for Our Times

The End of October is a gripping read with a sympathetic protagonist. The author has certainly done his homework and it was chilling to see how ficticional events so accurately mirrored the real-life events presently unfolding during the Coronavirus pandemic. The author weaves some fascinating insights into the story about previous pandemics, diseases and plagues, and the scientists that worked to contain them. I did feel, however, that there were gaps in the narrative, so much so that I thought that I had missed some chapters. I wondered if this was due to some overzealous editing. I would be very surprised if the movie rights hadn’t already been snapped up and the book lends itself nicely to a sequel.

One third interesting, two thirds misery slog

The first third of the book, as the scientists grapple with the virus was interesting and even compelling, given our situation. The performance by the reader was very good. Then, for me at least, it turned into a slog of never ending misery, as the central characters are caught up in the pandemic. While reading the chapters on the children I found myself absolutely reviling Henry. That made it very difficult to keep going,as I felt we were meant to sympathize with him and his plight.