Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

Written eight years before COVID-19, Quammen's investigation of zoonotic diseases reads as meticulous prophecy. He tracks the spillover points where animal viruses cross into human populations — from bats in China, from gorillas in Congo — with the narrative skill of a novelist and the rigour of a scientist. The book's final section on coronaviruses is now one of the most haunting paragraphs in nonfiction.