"A maniacal page-turner. [A] sweeping, authoritative, and genuinely intelligent thriller . . . It read[s] as if it's been shot out of a cannon. [Wright] offers the joy of competence--his own as a writer, and the scientific and moral competence of many of the characters he's invented . . . Everywhere there is clear writing about pestilence and science . . . Wright's novel is here as a real if solemn entertainment, a stay against boredom and a kind of offered prayer for the best in us to rise to the surface." --
Dwight Garner, The New York Times "A thriller for our times . . . Like all good thrillers, The End of October diverts us from the real world while keeping a firm base there, letting us imagine not only disaster but the ways out of it." --Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times
"Some works of fiction seem ripped from the headlines. Others anticipate the news, providing a prophetic vision of our future. Lawrence Wright's new novel, The End of October, belongs in the rare second category." --Daniel Burke, CNN
"[Wright's] book shows that our new reality, a surprise and a shock to most of us, is actually following a script written far in advance, with all the words and phrases that we never used six weeks ago--attack rate, viral load, cytokine storm--now part of our everyday speech . . . The prescience of The End of October is undeniable . . . Wright is as amiable a tour guide as you could hope for through the darkest terrain of recent history." --Christian Lorentzen, Air Mail
"As a distinguished journalist and author of several highly successful factual books, Wright approached this just as he would any other journalistic assignment, carrying out detailed research and preparation. As he went from expert to expert he heard clear warnings that something like the coronavirus would happen. It was a question not so much of 'if' but 'when, ' and crucially, many asked how prepared governments would be to cope with it . . . Is truth stranger than fiction, as the American writer Mark Twain once suggested? Now we all have a chance to judge for ourselves." --Jonathan Marcus, BBC
"So uncannily timed that any moment now some conspiracy theorist will tweet that our real-life pandemic is a hoax dreamed up by Wright's publicist." --Texas Monthly
"This is the book you need to read this spring." --Teresa Timmer, Bulletin Mail
"Holy crap, Lawrence Wright predicted the future . . . His medical thriller is truly a story for our times." --Molly Odintz, Crime Reads
"Is this really a work of fiction? Or was it a prophecy?" --Jaime Dunaway, Lakewood Advocate Magazine
"Whew! A compelling read up to the last sentence. Wright has come up with a story worthy of Michael Crichton. In an eerily calm, matter-of-fact way, and backed by meticulous research, he imagines what the world would actually be like in the grip of a devastating new virus."
--Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event "[A] multifaceted thriller . . . Wright pulls few punches and imbues even walk-on characters with enough humanity that their fate will matter to readers. This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[Wright's] book shows that our new reality, a surprise and a shock to most of us, is actually following a script written far in advance, with all the words and phrases that we never used six weeks ago--attack rate, viral load, cytokine storm--now part of our everyday speech . . . The prescience of The End of October is undeniable . . . Wright is as amiable a tour guide as you could hope for through the darkest terrain of recent history." --Christian Lorentzen, Air Mail
