A global pandemic that “brings the world to its knees.” We’re facing that today, but this is a description of the novel, “The End of October,” which came out in April 2020 to a world under lockdown, as COVID-19 tore across the globe. It was written and conceived of far before the coronavirus was first discovered, and we speak with its author, Lawrence Wright, who notes the book is based on countless interviews with scientists and public health experts that saw this pandemic coming, and describes how the story follows a high-level CDC official in his efforts to contain and cure a deadly virus. The novel has since been called “eerily prescient” and “a warning after its time.” Wright is a New Yorker staff writer.