2020

A gripping, deeply moving account of a signal year in modern history, told through the stories of seven ordinary people trying to survive at the epicentre of the crisis. Klinenberg's narrative shows how the legacy of that year continues to shape us, our politics and our personal lives

Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies

A sociological investigation of an unforgettable year, 2020 compellingly reveals what the pandemic laid bare about our culture, our institutions, and ourselves

Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted

A book that's at once intimate and far-ranging, that reveals the importance of social solidarity and also its fragility

Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

Elegantly written and well researched . . . filled with impressive detail

Economist

By bridging the gaps between individual, community and population, [Klinenberg] shows how pandemics alter society and exacerbate inequality. He follows the threads that connect the individual lived experience to the national phenomenon

Laura Spinney, New Statesman

Remarkable . . . full of intriguing insights

Literary Review

[An] analytical yet moving account of the pandemic

Nature