The End of October
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  • Published: 3 November 2020
  • ISBN: 9781784165741
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $24.00

The End of October

A page-turning thriller that warned of the risk of a global virus

Formats & editions
Paperback
3 Nov 2020
Tr. Paperback
28 Apr 2020
EBook
28 Apr 2020
Audiobook
28 Apr 2020
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The instant New York Times bestseller. A riveting and prescient thriller - from Pulitzer Prize winner, Lawrence Wright - that shows one man's race against time to save the world from a killer virus . . .

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

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'Flies thrillingly, eerily close to reality' Guardian

'This page-turner... is riveting and spookily anticipates much that has unfolded in reality' Sunday Times
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.

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 . . .

***
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:

'If you have a desire to really understand what is going on in the world right now, this is a novel that you cannot afford to miss!'

'Well-written and fast-paced. Most of all utterly, scarily, believable.'
  • Published: 3 November 2020
  • ISBN: 9781784165741
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $24.00
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About the author

Lawrence Wright

Lawrence Wright is a staff writer for the New Yorker and a fellow at the Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law. He has won several awards for his journalism. He is the author of Twins and Remembering Satan, and the co-writer of the movie The Siege.

portrait photo of Lawrence Wright

Also by Lawrence Wright

The Looming Tower
The Plague Year
God Save Texas
See all

Praise for The End of October

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

Eerily prescient. Too bad our leaders lack his foresight.

The New York Times

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

The novel is riveting and spookily anticipates much that has unfolded in reality.

Sunday Times