by Annie Jacobsen (Author)
New York Times Editors' Choice
One of People's 15 Most Anticipated Books of Summer
The Next Big Idea Club's July 2026 Must-Read Books
One of the New York Times Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer
Sunset Magazine's 15 New Books You Don't Want to Miss
From Annie Jacobsen, the author of the bestselling
Nuclear War: A Scenario, a book on a subject that has long orbited her reporting: biological warfare.
A lab accident, a bio-attack, a global pandemic, and the collapse of human society. In this essential new book, based on dozens of new interviews with experts with high-level political, governmental, medical, and military responsibility, Annie Jacobsen examines this very scenario. It would be only a matter of days from such a global infection before the infrastructure built to handle this gravest of situations would be in a battle for human existence.
The fallout: mass death, total societal breakdown, widespread insurrection, anarchy, and a plague-ravaged wasteland that no longer resembles modern civilization. In other words: dystopia.
Following the gripping narrative style that launched
Nuclear War to the
New York Times bestseller list, Jacobsen looks deeply at a situation that is in some ways the opposite of a nuclear bomb: There is no mushroom cloud, no shock wave or blast. Instead, the scenario that could end the world as we know it begins with something so small, and something so malicious, that when used for evil, only evil can result.
This is what could happen; a ticking-clock roadmap to the hours, days, and weeks following the release of a biological agent, that serves as the most essential, forward-looking journalism in preparation for urgent societal upheaval.
Author Biography
Annie Jacobsen is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Nuclear War, Area 51, and Operation Paperclip, the Pulitzer Prize finalist in history The Pentagon's Brain, First Platoon, and other books. She was a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons. Jacobsen's books have been named Best of the Year and Most Anticipated by outlets including The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Boston Globe. Coverage has ranged from the New York Times to Joe Rogan's podcast. Audiences have included the Vatican and the United Nations.
Number of Pages: 432
Dimensions: 1.53 x 9.3 x 6.25 IN
Publication Date: July 28, 2026
