Pandemic Reads

It's been 5 years since COVID-19. The list below covers a range of pandemics both real and imaginary.

Updated March 17, 2025
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Fourteen days : a literary project of the Authors Guild of America
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
The tenants of a Manhattan apartment building have begun to gather on the rooftop each evening and tell stories in this exciting new twist on the novel. With each passing night, more and more neighbours gather. Gradually the tenants - some of whom have barely spoken to each...
The spare room : a novel
Bartz, Andrea
Paper Book
When Kelly's relationship ends, she doesn't know who to turn to. Until her friend Sabrina offers her a spare room for the summer. Unlike Kelly, Sabrina has it all. A glamorous career. A handsome, high-powered husband. And a huge house, complete with a swimming pool. At first, they share...
Havoc : a novel
Bollen, Christopher
Paper Book
The New York Times' #1 Thriller of 2024 'Highsmithian... highly readable, twisty and shrewd' HANYA YANAGIHARA (on Instagram), author of A Little Life 'Atmospheric, diabolical fun' LUCY FOLEY, author of The Midnight Feast 'Disturbingly enjoyable' EMMA HEALEY, author of...
World War Z : an oral history of the zombie war
Brooks, Max.
Ebook
It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginnings of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse. Faced with a future of mindless, man-eating horror,...
The furies : two Charlie Parker novels
Connolly, John
Paper Book
Pandemic
Cook, Robin
Paper Book
Pandemic is an explosive medical thriller about a deadly virus, from New York Times-bestselling author Robin Cook. In New York City, an unidentified, healthy, well-dressed woman is struck down by a sudden respiratory illness on the subway as...
The passage : a novel
Cronin, Justin.
Paper Book
NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES! An epic, awe-inspiring novel of good and evil - now a global bestseller. Amy Harper Bellafonte is six years old and her mother thinks she's the most important person in the whole world. She is. Anthony Carter doesn...
Day : a novel
Cunningham, Michael
Paper Book
'Unsparing and tender' Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn 'A brilliant novel from our most brilliant of writers' Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon 'A quietly stunning achievement' Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous As the world changes...
Love in the time of cholera
García Márquez, Gabriel
Ebook
A CLASSIC STORY OF ENDURING LOVE FROM THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR _______________________________ 'It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love' Fifty-one years, nine months and four days...
The dog stars
Heller, Peter
Paper Book
Hig, bereaved and traumatised after global disaster, has three things to live for: his dog, his neighbour and his Cessna aeroplane. He's just about surviving, so long as he only takes his plane for short journeys. But, one day, he takes his plane over the horizon, knowing that he won't have enough...
The fireman : a novel
Hill, Joe
Paper Book
This gripping thriller about a supernatural pandemic is one you will not want to put down. Sometimes you can only fight fire with fire Nobody knew where the virus came from. FOX News said it had been set loose by ISIS, using spores that had been...
The stand : a novel
King, Stephen
Paper Book
Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by virus and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published. 'THE STAND is a masterpiece' (Guardian). Set in a virus-decimated...
Severance
Ma, Ling
Ebook
Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine: her work, watching movies with her boyfriend, avoiding thoughts of her recently deceased Chinese immigrant parents. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps the world.<...
Bird box
Malerman, Josh
Paper Book
Josh Malerman's debut novel Bird Box is a terrifying, Hitchcockesque psychological horror that is sure to stay with you long after reading. Malorie raises the children the only way she can: indoors. The house is quiet. The doors are locked, the curtains are closed, mattresses are...
Sea of Tranquility
Mandel, Emily St. John
Paper Book
SELECTED AS ONE OF THE OPRAH DAILY'S BEST BOOKS OF 2022'So wise, so graceful, so rich. I loved Sea of Tranquility' Naomi Alderman, author of The PowerThe award-winning author of Station Eleven returns with a story of time travel that precisely captures the reality of our current moment . . . In 1912...
Station eleven
Mandel, Emily St. John
Paper Book
One of The New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century 'Best novel. The big one . . . stands above all the others' - George R.R. Martin, author of Game of Thrones Now an HBO Max original TV series The New York Times<...
Blind spots
Mullen, Thomas
Paper Book
From the acclaimed author of Darktown comes the most inventive crime novel since Minority Report. 'It's rare to find a thriller with such a fantastic and original concept. I was gripped' --- Anthony Horowitz In a world where a global...
How high we go in the dark : a novel
Nagamatsu, Sequoia
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2022FINALIST FOR THE BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE 2022FINALIST FOR THE URSULA LE GUIN PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022WATERSTONES AND ESQUIRE BEST BOOKS OF 2022For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, Sequoia...
The last one : a novel
Oliva, Alexandra
Paper Book
When Zoo agrees to take part in a new reality TV show, In The Dark, she's hoping for a challenge. Facing eleven competitors, she's prepared for her physical and mental strength to be tested in a series of unforgiving survival tasks. But as her fellow contestants are overcome by...
Wish you were here : a novel
Picoult, Jodi
Paper Book
Year one
Roberts, Nora
Paper Book
'A match for end-of-the-world classics like Stephen King's The Stand' - New York Times Review of Books As this world ends, a new one begins. From number one New York Times bestseller Nora Roberts - an epic, apocalyptic tale of good and evil, love and loss....
Blindness
Saramago, José.
Ebook
No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order. Discover a chillingly powerful and prescient dystopian vision from one of Europe's greatest writers. A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An ophthalmologist tries to...
Lock in
Scalzi, John
Paper Book
Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. 4% suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And 1% find themselves 'locked in' - fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to...
The book of M
Shepherd, Peng
Paper Book
A vivid, touching and original debut, following the effects of an extraordinary catastrophe on very ordinary people. In the middle of a market in India, a man's shadow disappears. As rolling twenty-four-hour news coverage tries to explain the event, more cases are discovered. The...
Our country friends : a novel
Shteyngart, Gary
Paper Book
Lucy by the sea : a novel
Strout, Elizabeth
Paper Book
'It is a gift in this life that we do not know what awaits us' In March 2020 Lucy's ex-husband William pleads with her to leave New York and escape to a coastal house he has rented in Maine. Lucy reluctantly agrees, leaving the washing-up in the sink, expecting to be back...
Annihilation
VanderMeer, Jeff.
Paper Book
'A contemporary masterpiece' Guardian THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE EXTRAORDINARY SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY - NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ALEX GARLAND (EX MACHINA) AND STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN AND OSCAR ISAAC For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious and...
The summer place : a novel
Weiner, Jennifer
Paper Book
'If you have time for only one book this summer, pick this one' New York Times 'An ambitious, immersive novel from the author of In Her Shoes' Red Magazine 'Engrossing' Sunday Mirror ____________________________
Zone one : a novel
Whitehead, Colson
Ebook
Doomsday book
Willis, Connie.
Paper Book
"A tour de force" - New York Times Book Review "Ambitious, finely detailed and compulsively readable" - Locus "It is a book that feels fundamentally true; it is a book to live in" - Washington Post For Kivrin Engle, preparing an on-site study...

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