Pulitzer Prize–winning author Lawrence Wright’s “all-encompassing” book about the Covid-19 pandemic is coming this spring.
Alfred A. Knopf will publish Wright’s The Plague Year, the press announced in a news release.
“In The Plague Year, Wright takes us inside the Center for Disease Control and the White House, into a hospital Covid ward, into the realm of prediction specialists—and even inside the human body, diving deep into the science of how virus and vaccines function,” Knopf said. “Wright cuts through layers of misinformation and obfuscation, giving readers the first clear-eyed assessment of this ongoing catastrophe, and pays tribute to the medical professionals who continue to risk their lives fighting the virus.”
Readers can already get a preview of the book: An excerpt appeared last month in the New Yorker.
Wright has proved to be prescient about the pandemic. Last May, just two months after the country locked down because of Covid-19, Wright published The End of October, a novel about an American disease fighter trying to control a global pandemic caused by a deadly virus.
“As a reporter, I feel a great responsibility to give a full accounting of what has happened — indeed is still happening—and to sort through the science, to address the political calamity, to gain an understanding of what has led to this moment, and to pay tribute to all the professionals who are putting their lives on the line,” Wright said of his forthcoming book.
The Plague Year is slated for publication on June 8.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
