The End of October

Are you the sort of person who would choose to read The Road in the middle of a blackout? Then The End of October might be for you! Wright has been justifiably acclaimed for his fearlessly reported accounts of both al-Qaeda (The Looming Tower) and Scientology (Going Clear), so perhaps it's not too surprising that his first fictional thriller—written when COVID-19 was a mere twinkle in a bat's eye—would turn out to be so unsettlingly prescient. Yes, a viral pandemic is quickly ravaging the planet, and some of the elements—ventilator shortages, accusations of foreign lab culprits—will feel weirdly familiar, but Wright, in true thriller fashion, turns the dial up to eleven in every respect: the blood-gushing brutality of the virus, the immanence of global war, the rapid collapse into anarchy. It's not easy going, and his brilliant epidemiologist hero—spoiler!—can't fix everything; some might find it cathartic to read, others too close to home.