Throughout history, widespread disease is one of the most devastating opponents humanity has ever faced. Eras that have dealt with it are often characterized by panic, death, and uncertainty.
Though humanity has managed to survive this far, our close call with various diseases has left a strong impression—not only in history but also literature. You’ll find thousands of books discussing humanity’s survival amidst pandemics, plagues, and outbreaks.
Books about Pandemics
It sounds counterintuitive, but many have taken up reading books about pandemics (whether scientific or fantastical) to cope with the literal one the world is currently experiencing.
For some people, it is to understand what’s happening and put it in perspective. To others, it’s a means to explore their anxieties and fears, as well as their thoughts about the future.
Here are a few books that explore pandemics and how they affect the world in different ways.
1. Blindness By José Saramago
An epidemic takes over the globe, robbing its victims of their sight. Authorities confine the blind to a hospital, but lawlessness slowly takes over.
People are taken hostage, food is stolen, and women are raped. As chaos continues to ensue, the one person who can see tries to lead those they can into safety.
2. The Plague By Albert Camus
In the town of Oran, hundreds of rats begin to die in the streets. Though a couple of doctors warn their colleagues and the authorities, their warnings fall on deaf ears.
Panic gives way to the plague and soon death comes in waves. The city is sealed and those within must work together to survive despite their helplessness in the face of death.
3. Station Eleven By Emily St. John Mandel
The same night a Hollywood actor dies on stage from a heart attack, a flu pandemic takes over the world. Within weeks, civilization as we know it is already at an end.
Twenty years later, a group of traveling performers makes their rounds across humanity’s remaining settlements, recreating Shakespeare’s plays. But in one such place, they encounter a violent prophet who threatens the equilibrium the troupe has maintained in this ruined world.
4. A Beginning at the End By Mike Chen
The world has ended but humanity has survived. From the world’s ruins, the survivors pick themselves up and find ways to live again.
Everything is fragile in this new reality. So when reports of another pandemic begin to spread, everyone must guard what little they still stand to lose.
5. The Book of M By Peng Shepherd
A plague sweeps through the continent, giving those afflicted with strange powers but stealing all of their memories. When Max exhibits the symptoms, she runs away, leaving her husband Ory safe from the pandemic.
But Ory isn’t willing to give up what time they have left together. He follows her trail through a world destroyed by the Forgetting, going against bandits, and defying a sinister cult on the rise.
6. The Andromeda Strain By Michael Crichton
A space probe falls to the earth, crashing somewhere in the desolate region of Arizona. Soon, the nearby town of Piedmont is piled high with bodies, their faces locked in a surprised rictus.
A team of scientists is called in, discovering an extraterrestrial as the cause of the deaths. However, fighting it is another matter as it constantly evolves closer to invulnerability.
7. The Stand By Stephen King
An artificial strain of influenza, estimated to be 99.4% lethal, is accidentally unleashed to the world. Panic ensues, martial law is invoked, and civilization collapses.
In its ruins emerge two leaders—one benevolent, the other violent. As these two forces clash, those who remain must choose which path humanity must take.
8. Severance By Ling Ma
Candace Chen is a woman of routine. So much so that she barely notices when the Shen Fever rages through New York.
Life screeches to a halt as families flee, businesses stop, and the subways cease operations. Candace joins a group of survivors who must soon deal with their increasingly tyrannical leader while searching for a safe place to start society anew.
9. Pale Horse, Pale Rider By Katherine Anne Porter
Miranda, a young drama critic, falls in love with Adam, a soldier. Though they find happiness with each other, war rages on and a pandemic looms ever closer.
Then Miranda becomes sick and delirious, with Adam caring for her until she is moved to a hospital. But while she recovers, it may just be too late for their happy ending.
10. The End of October By Lawrence Wright
An epidemiologist travels halfway across the world to investigate a mysterious disease in Indonesia. Soon, a pandemic decimates its way across continents. Diplomatic relationships fray and people die by the hundreds.
Believed to be biowarfare, governments scramble to mount a response. And as humanity’s chances of survival plummet, one man prepares his own terrifying solution.
11. To Calais, in Ordinary Time By James Meek
A gentlewoman fleeing from marriage, a proctor setting out for Avignon, and a young plowman searching for freedom journey together from England to France.
Coming to them is the Black Death, a plague that will soon wipe out half of Europe. As the travelers become more aware of the danger they’re in, they must also confront the real reasons why they are journeying in the first place.
12. Year of Wonders By Geraldine Brooks
A bolt of cloth carries the plague to an isolated village, where a housemaid named Anna Frith becomes its unlikely savior. Though she and the villagers work together to contain and minimize the disease, superstition becomes their more threatening opponent.
As paranoia builds up with every death, the villagers turn to witch-hunting. Anna must find the strength to heal her deteriorating community and turn tragedy into wonder.
13. Wanderers By Chuck Wendig
Shana wakes up to find her sister sleepwalking, unable to talk or wake up. She’s not alone, joining thousands of others as they journey to a destination only they know of.
The world begins to crumble as those afflicted continue on the road ahead. Society fears what these sleepwalkers bring, a violent militia threatens to exterminate them, and still many choose to protect and care for their slumbering loved ones.
14. Oryx and Crake By Margaret Atwood
Snowman, once known as Jimmy before the plague, might be the only human left in the world. He struggles with loneliness, mourning the loss of his best friend Crake and Oryx, whom they both loved.
All he has for company are primitive, human-like creatures he calls Crakers. Together, they scavenge through a dead world, looking for other signs of life.
15. Love in the Time of Cholera By Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The young Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. Alas, Fermina chooses to marry a wealthy doctor fighting to stop cholera instead.
But Florentino is a romantic, vowing to save his heart for Fermina. When she is widowed at last, he proclaims his love again, restarting a romance that was paused 50 years ago.
Reading Pandemic Books
Everyone needs an escape nowadays, especially when dealing with a global health threat. Disease is something you can’t see, making it a much more stressful and fearsome enemy.
A lot of people are also not medical professionals, making it hard for them to understand why certain health procedures and standards must be maintained. To some of them, reading books about pandemics is their way of adjusting to the situation.
Sure, the pandemics they read about may be long gone, futuristic, or fantastical but it’s the human emotions and responses that matter in these stories. It gives people a chance to understand the panic, desperation, motives, and logic behind every decision being made.
What is your favorite book about pandemics?
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- 12 Mind-Blowing Books About Drugs
- 10 Best Books About Addiction and Recovery
- 11 Books About Death to Help You Deal with Grief
- 17 Definitive Books About War
Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
