Lawrence Wright. (Photo courtesy of lawrencewright.com.)
Who would have thought three years ago that we’d be living through a once-in-a-century pandemic? None other than Lawrence Wright, the 1965 Woodrow Wilson High School graduate, of course.
In 2017, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author started writing his latest novel, “The End of October,” which describes a virus that originates in Asia and spreads around the globe. As the people of the world face supply shortages, lack of testing and stay-at-home orders, epidemiologists race to find a cure.
Is this really a work of fiction? Or was it a prophecy?
As of Thursday, more than 2 million people globally have contracted COVID-19, and more than 175,000 people have died, according to the World Health Organization.
“Toward the end of January, I was already stocking up on groceries and ordering masks and gloves because I thought, ‘Viruses don’t pay attention to borders, and this one is going to fly across our border as sure as anything,'” Wright said on CBS This Morning. “It wasn’t very long before it did get here.”
As a former journalist, Wright became interested in public health while writing stories about the Centers for Disease Control. He studied past pandemics and interviewed scientists and health care workers to imagine what a virus outbreak would look like in the modern world.
CNN described him this way: “In other words, Wright is such a consummate journalist that even his fiction can be remarkably accurate.”
The “The End of October” will be released April 28. Find it on Amazon for $24.95.
