The Premonition

A Pandemic Story

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo

For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about.

Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’ taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The characters you will meet in this audiobook are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A 13-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu...everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work.

Michael Lewis is not shy about calling these people heroes for their refusal to follow directives that they know to be based on misinformation and bad science. Even the internet, as crucial as it is to their exchange of ideas, poses a risk to them. They never know for sure who else might be listening in.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Michael Lewis (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

Worst performance....

Worst choice of narrator!
The only reason I didn't stop reading and return the book was that I really wanted to read it, and not wait for a replacement.

Narrator Distraction

Typical Michael Lewis—character driven and well-written story, and good follow-up to The Fifth Risk. The narrator has a pronunciation tic that was a significant distraction for me, where her hard “d” becomes a “t”—think Covid sounds like Cove-it, or rudely sounds like rootley. People who aren’t sticklers or OCD about such things probably wouldn’t notice it but for those of us with obsessive and admittedly critical ears, it will take away from the experience. Content is interesting but I can’t recommend based on the narration.

Excellent story but sub-optimal recording.

Probably the best story in the Michael Lewis canon but disappointingly voiced recording. Worth hearing in spite of this drawback but might be worth re-recording.

Changed my view

I worked in microbiology 77 to 98, and one of the shocks of the pandemic for me was how badly the CDC and the country at large did. This book details that it was far worse than it appeared, and that the problems began back in the 70’ sand have only gotten worse. It is the story of a failed system, maybe even a failed state running into an unforgiving enemy that laid bare all our rot and disfunction, told through they eyes who saw it coming and saw what needed to be done but never was. Nothing has shaken my confidence like this since The Big Short. Gee, thanks Mr. Lewis.

Great explanation

Love the book! It explains a lot of unanswered questions from last year and also a long systematic problems at government and pharmaceutical side. I would not surprise if this turns into a movie! Thanks for introducing a courage character-Charity Dean!!!