“China Syndrome is a fast-moving, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction thriller that doubles as an excellent primer of emerging infections for scientists and laypeople alike. But that’s not all. For readers more captivated by world politics than by microbiology, its chief strength, beyond the superb writing, is a detailed look at China’s culture of secrecy in the throes of a global public health crisis.” — Los Angeles Times
When the SARS virus broke out in China in January 2003, Karl Taro Greenfeld was the editor of Time Asia in Hong Kong, just a few miles from the epicenter of the outbreak. After vague, initial reports of terrified Chinese boiling vinegar to "purify" the air, Greenfeld and his staff soon found themselves immersed in the story of a lifetime.
Deftly tracking a mysterious viral killer from the bedside of one of the first victims to China's overwhelmed hospital wards—from cutting-edge labs where researchers struggle to identify the virus to the war rooms at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva—China Syndrome takes readers on a gripping ride that blows through the Chinese government's effort to cover up the disease . . . and sounds a clarion call warning of a catastrophe to come: a great viral storm potentially more deadly than any respiratory disease since the influenza of 1918.
Author Info
Karl Taro Greenfeld is the author of seven previous books, including the novel Triburbia and the acclaimed memoir Boy Alone. His award-winning writing has appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Best American Short Stories 2009 and 2013, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. Born in Kobe, Japan, he has lived in Paris, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, and currently lives in Pacific Palisades, California, with his wife, Silka, and their daughters, Esmee and Lola.
Reviews
"A compelling writer...China Syndrome echoes the sort of gritty, breathless thriller pace that Richard Preston employed 10 years ago in The Hot Zone." — Washington Post
"Greenfeld does a great job of evoking the scenes and bringing all the personalities to life....Like a prosecutor building his case, Karl lays out how Chinese government officials kept a lid on all medical reports, labeling them top secret and keeping them not only from the rest of the world but from other Chinese doctors who might have used them to save their patients." — Christine Gorman, TIME Global Health Update
“Fine reporting...a scientific whodunnit....Taro Greenfeld does well to convey the sense of excitement of the hunt to identify Sars.” — Financial Times
"Greenfeld offers little hope that the Chinese have learned any lesson, for it’s back to business-as-usual for Shenzhen’s wild-animal trade, and he ponders the nature and purpose of viruses as he paints a rather gloomy picture of what we and the World Health Organization can expect next." — Booklist (starred review)
"A work of riveting, relevant journalism...a dexterous approach that recalls Randy Shilts’s AIDS history And the Band Played On." — The Village Voice
“An excellent and in-depth look at a frightening episode--a bullet that the world dodged--and not insignificantly, a fascinating and penetrating look into modern China.” — John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza
“A thrilling, important book. . . . Anyone who cares about how Avian bird flu or some other future infectious epidemic may occur, and anyone who wants to understand how China works, must read this book.” — Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
“A sensational minute-by-minute account of fear and heroism in the battle against a pandemic that almost happened—and could happen any day now. It is also one of the best books I have read about another modern mystery, day-to-day life in China today.” — Richard Reeves, author of Ronald Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination
“China Syndrome is a timely and frightening reminder that our increasingly heavily populated, high-speed and mobile world has become one big Petri dish of potential pestilence. The only antidote is an active and open media and a responsive and truthful system of public information and health. This book is both a first step towards that goal and a fascinating read.” — Orville Schell, Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley, and author of Mandate of Heaven
"A taut scientific thriller, well told." — Kirkus Reviews
"Greenfeld’s ground zero perspective on SARS...brings reportorial immediacy to this chronicle of how epidemiologists realized that the cases of “atypical pneumonia” scattered throughout Asia were the initial wave of severe acute respiratory syndrome, a new strain of avian flu." — Publishers Weekly
“With The China Syndrome, Greenfeld provides both a fascinating glimpse of life in modern-day China and an account of a pandemic averted that has all the suspense of a good thriller.” — New Atlantis
“This book is a parable for our times.” — New Statesman
