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From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower, and the pandemic novel The End of October: an unprecedented, momentous account of Covid-19—its origins, its wide-ranging repercussions, and the ongoing global fight to contain it From the fateful first moments of the outbreak in China to the storming of the U.S. Capitol to the extraordinary vaccine rollout, Lawrence Wright’s The Plague Year tells the story of Covid-19 in authoritative, galvanizing detail and with the full drama of events on both a global and intimate scale, illuminating the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the pandemic. Wright takes us inside the CDC, where a first round of faulty test kits lost America precious time . . . inside the halls of the White House, where Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger’s early alarm about the virus was met with confounding and drastically costly skepticism . . . into a Covid ward in a Charlottesville hospital, with an idealistic young woman doctor from the town of Little Africa, South Carolina . . . into the precincts of prediction specialists at Goldman Sachs . . . into Broadway’s darkened theaters and Austin’s struggling music venues . . . inside the human body, diving deep into the science of how the virus and vaccines function—with an eye-opening detour into the history of vaccination and of the modern anti-vaccination movement. And in this full accounting, Wright makes clear that the medical professionals around the country who’ve risked their lives to fight the virus reveal and embody an America in all its vulnerability, courage, and potential. In turns steely-eyed, sympathetic, infuriated, unexpectedly comical, and always precise, Lawrence Wright is a formidable guide, slicing through the dense fog of misinformation to give us a 360-degree portrait of the catastrophe we thought we knew.

The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid is a nonfiction book by Lawrence Wright that chronicles the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The book was published in September 2021 by Random House. Wright draws on interviews with scientists, public health officials, politicians, and ordinary people to tell the story of how the pandemic unfolded in the United States, from the first cases in early 2020 to the widespread vaccination campaign that began in late 2020.

Wright argues that the United States was unprepared for the pandemic and that the government's response was often chaotic and ineffective. He also criticizes the media for its coverage of the pandemic, which he says was often sensationalist and alarmist. However, Wright also finds hope in the story of the pandemic, noting the resilience of the American people and the dedication of the scientists and public health officials who worked to combat the virus. The Plague Year was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

The Plague Year is a powerful and moving account of a year that changed the world. Wright's book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the United States.

Here are some of the key themes that Wright explores in The Plague Year:

• The unpreparedness of the United States for the pandemic
• The chaotic and ineffective response of the government
• The sensationalist and alarmist coverage of the pandemic by the media
• The resilience of the American people
• The dedication of the scientists and public health officials who worked to combat the virus

The Plague Year is a complex and nuanced book that offers a valuable perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic. Wright's book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand this historic event.