“Pale Horse, Pale Rider” (1939) by Katherine Ann Porter is a short novel set during the influenza pandemic of 1918, which killed five times as many Americans as did World War I. Its main character, Miranda, is a young reporter who falls in love with a soldier; the book’s fever-dream style captures the experience of the disease.

“The Andromeda Strain” (1969) by Michael Crichton is a best-selling techno-thriller that begins when a military satellite crashes to earth and releases an extraterrestrial organism that kills almost everyone in a nearby small town. Then things get bad.

“Love in the Time of Cholera” (1985) by Gabriel García Marquez is the great Colombian author’s beguiling tale of a 50-year courtship, in which lovesickness is as debilitating and stubborn as disease.

“The MaddAddam Trilogy” by Margaret Atwood, which includes “Oryx and Crake” (2003), “The Year of the Flood” (2009) and “MaddAddam” (2013), is a masterwork of speculative fiction by the author of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Set in a near future in which genetic engineering causes a plague that almost destroys humanity, it’s savagely satirical, thrilling and moving.

“The Road” (2006) by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak, beautifully written, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set after an unspecified extinction event has wiped out most of humanity. An unnamed man and boy travel on foot toward a southern sea, fending off cannibals and despair.

“Nemesis” (2010) by Philip Roth is the author’s 31st and last novel, a sorrowful story set in Newark, New Jersey, in 1944, as the United States is in the grip of the polio epidemic that killed and disabled thousands of children.

“Station Eleven” (2014) by Emily St. John Mandel is a best-selling novel about a group of actors and musicians traveling through the Great Lakes region in future years after a mysterious pandemic called the Georgian flu has killed almost everyone.

“Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic” (2013) by David Quammen is the great science writer’s fascinating look at zoonotic diseases, such as AIDS and Ebola (and now coronavirus), that jump from animal species to ours.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【 食人族】 shírénzú cannibal a person who eats the flesh of other humans

【动物传染病的】dòngwù chuánrǎnbìng de zoonotic of or relating to an infection or disease that is transmissible from animals to humans under natural conditions凯瑟琳▪安▪波特1939年所著的《苍白的马，苍白的骑马人》是一部短篇小说，故事背景设定在1918年大流感期间，这场流感中死亡的美国人数量是第一次世界大战期间死亡人数的五倍。这篇小说的主角米兰达是一名年轻记者，她爱上了一名士兵。这本书梦呓般的文风就像是发高烧时写出来的，捕捉住了这种流感的体验。

迈克尔▪克莱顿1969年的《天外来菌》是一本科技惊悚畅销书。在这篇小说的开头，一颗军事卫星坠落到地球表面，排放出一种地外微生物，杀死了附近一个小镇几乎所有的人。然后事情变得越来越糟糕。

《霍乱时期的爱情》是伟大的哥伦比亚作家加布里埃尔▪加西亚▪马尔克斯1985年所著的作品。这本书讲述了一段持续了50年的令人陶醉的求爱故事。在这个故事中，相思病和疾病一样顽固和令人虚弱。

《使女的故事》作者玛格丽特▪阿特伍德所著的推理小说杰作“疯狂的亚当三部曲”

包括《末世男女》（2003年）、《洪荒年代》（2009年）和《疯狂的亚当》（2013

年）。该系列故事背景设定在不远的未来，讲述的是基因工程学导致了一场瘟疫，这场瘟疫让人类几乎灭绝。小说具有残忍的讽刺力量，惊心动魄又感人。

科马克▪麦卡锡2006年所著的《路》是一部凄凉、文笔优美的小说，曾获得普利策奖。故事发生的背景是一场不明灭绝事件令大多数人类丧生。一位不具名男子和一个男孩为了逃避食人者和绝望，徒步踏上了前往南部海洋的旅途。

菲利普▪罗斯2010年的《复仇女神》是这位作家第31部、也是最后一部小说。这个悲伤的故事的背景设定在1944年的美国新泽西州纽瓦克市，当时美国脊髓灰质炎疫情盛行，导致成千上万的儿童夭折和残疾。

艾米丽▪圣约翰▪曼德尔2014年所著的畅销小说《第十一站》讲述的是未来的一场名为格鲁吉亚流感的神秘大瘟疫几乎杀死了所有人

后，一群演员和音乐家穿越五大湖区的故事。

伟大的科学作家大卫▪奎曼2013年所著的《致命接触：全球大型传染病探秘之旅》从一个有趣的角度观察了由动物传播给人类的动物源性疾病，比如艾滋病、埃博拉病毒（现在的新冠病毒也属此类）。

(chinadaily.com.cn)