The coronavirus has been spreading around the globe in such pandemic proportions that there has been a reported increase in the number of people drafting their wills. As we all stay home and put ourselves in quarantine, many of us see what’s happening in the world through the lens of news reports as well as watching movies with pandemic themes like Contagion. Even more immersive is the literature on the subject that keeps us glued to our seats and makes us think that this is now happening. While it might give some of us a shock, the pandemic theme in fiction is becoming a popular staple of reading as it now represents a strong reflection of the current health crisis. Here are some of my recommended books on pandemics that you may want to read. They are arranged according to the years of their publication.

1) A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe (1722)

What if the bubonic plague returned to Britain? From 1665 to 1666, London was devastated by plague deaths where 70,000 of the population was wiped out within 18 months. Fifty years later, Defoe penned this work in the form of an eyewitness account for the events that took place during the Great Plague of London. He drew his idea from historical documents to illustrate how a plague can affect a city and this story was said to be based on the journals of his uncle. Defoe’s meticulous and systematic research gives you a front seat view on the events that took place during that plague.

2) Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter (1939)

This is a collection of three novellas, namely, Old Mortality, Noon Wine, and the book’s title story. The title story explores the relationship of a newspaperwoman named Miranda and a soldier named Adam. Set in Denver, Colorado during the 1918 influenza epidemic, Miranda falls ill and becomes delirious. She then recovers only to find that Adam has perished from the epidemic, which he contracted during the time he was tending to her.

3) The Plague by Albert Camus (1947)

My favorite among this list, this novel is believed to be based on the cholera epidemic that swept a huge portion of the population in the French Algerian city of Oran in 1849. Popular for his existential themes, Camus delves into the deadly malady by probing questions on the nature of fate and the human condition. Camus, however, objected to his work being labeled as an existential classic. But it cannot be helped that literary scholars and critics find that its narrative tone resonates with the allegorical representation of man’s struggles stemming from consciousness and inquiry into meaning.

4) The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton (1969)

If you love techno-thrillers, you may want to sink your teeth into one of Crichton’s earlier works. This story documents the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak of a deadly microorganism that originated outside Earth. This microorganism somehow found its way to Earth through a deployed military satellite that the scientists are retrieving when it landed in New Mexico. Crichton was inspired to write the novel after reading Len Deighton’s spy novel, The IPCRESS File.