Going viral: Thriller with a familiar theme

The End of October by Lawrence Wright, Penguin, $37

Every now and again a book appears that is totally unforgettable. Before I read this novel I did not even know what a pathogen was.

An understanding of epidemiology and microbiology would be some help, but the story is universal and riveting. I could not put this down.

Doctor Henry Parsons is a microbiologist and an epidemiologist. He is attending a WHO meeting, his last meeting before returning to his family in the States. Before the meeting concludes, a young Dutch doctor voices his concerns about three of his compatriots working for Doctors Sans Borders, with whom he has lost contact after their visit to Indonesia. Henry agrees to meet up with them on his way back to the States.

A reluctant Indonesian Health Minister finally consents to Henry's visit. He is appalled to find a guarded prison encampment for homosexual Indonesians. He has trouble getting consent to enter and his friendly Indonesian taxi driver insists on accompanying him. Henry finds the doctors all dead and others in the camp sick and dying.

He sends his taxi driver out to wait for him.

Henry is appalled by what he has seen and even more so to find Bambang, his driver had not waited for him. He realises he, too, will be contagious and remembers he is off to join the millions of Muslims from all over the world in the annual Hajj to Mecca.

Henry is now in 14-day isolation himself before he can set out to find Bambang, by now well immersed in the millions of worshippers.

The repercussions of millions of Muslims, already contagious, returning to all parts of the world is too awful to contemplate.

Henry's time in Saudi with his friend, a crown prince, now health minister and previously educated in the west, is brilliantly written.

Henry and his counterparts' battle to save the world is told through the backdrop of Henry's own story and his family's story in stark reality right to the grim conclusion.

I felt quite humble reviewing this novel. It is superbly written, gripping, thought proving and a stark reminder of man's mortality.

The New York Post termed The End of October “an eerily prescient novel”. I can't think of a better term although Wright is careful to claim this is not his opinion.

His idea for a modern pandemic novel originated in 2010 when film maker Ridley Scott asked Wright to pen a screenplay about the end of civilisation. He began writing The End of October in 2017.

He is quoted as saying when he reads the newspapers he feels as though he is reading his own book with a few differences, the fictional Kongoli virus is much more virulent than Covid-19 and on the whole we are still optimistic about our outcome.

Wright has dedicated this novel to all those using their courage and ingenuity to fighting disease.

A must read for our times.