"Arresting . . . Lean-limbed, immersive . . . Rich with peerless reportage and incisive critique . . . Translates the complexities of epidemiology into plain English . . . Wright is at his commanding best . . . when he places the pandemic in historical context--his detours into the Black Plague and the 1918 Spanish flu are narrative marvels--and in his portraits of the players." --Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"[An] incredibly-crafted telling . . . [Wright] is an earnest prober, with sober-minded curiosity . . . [He] provides a well-wrought map covering the institutions and politicians that failed America during this stretch of the pandemic [and] crucially highlights those that also saved us--the first responders and the reasonable." --Eric Allen Been, The Boston Globe

"A master at knitting together complex narratives . . . Wright's deep research reveals the oversights and errors that fatally hampered the US response to Covid . . . A story about hubris and division, complacency and insularity, but most of all precariousness." --Andrew Anthony, The Guardian

"Insightful . . . Indispensable as a coronavirus compendium. Very little escapes Wright's notice, and he is adept at placing the ongoing story in an enlightening context . . . The illuminating profiles include, among others, vaccine researchers Barney Graham and Jason McLellan; Bellevue Hospital doctor Barron Lerner; Univ. of Virginia professor and anesthesiologist Ebony Hilton; and from the Trump Administration, National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger and Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah Birx." --Michael King, The Austin Chronicle

"A valuable, readable early contribution to what will inevitably become a substantial body of work on the pandemic . . . The Plague Year is to be commended for both its compassion and its anger." --Ben Clarke, Chicago Review of Books

"Nailed down by one of our finest writers, the story is almost unbelievable . . . A dramatic, comprehensive account." --Joseph Barbato, New York Journal of Books

"Taut, thriller-like, The Plague Year captures the chaos and courage of this unprecedented era that's forever changed us." --Oprah Daily

"By far the best book yet on COVID-19 . . . [An] exemplary chronicle [with] countless examples of hope, sacrifice, and heroic feats. Wright's interviews with experts in virology, economics, public health, history, politics, and medicine are enlightening . . . Wright is at his finest here in frontline research, expert analysis, and lucid writing." --Tony Miksanek, Booklist (starred review)

"Maddening and sobering--as comprehensive an account of the first year of the pandemic as we've yet seen . . . In his characteristically rigorous and engrossing style, Wright documents innumerable episodes of ineptitude and malfeasance even as Trump officials such as Peter Navarro privately reckoned that 'a full-blown . . . pandemic could infect as many as 100 million Americans.'" --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)