In this riveting medical thriller--from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author--Dr. Henry Parsons an unlikely but appealing hero races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees.At an internment camp in Indonesia forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--micrIn this riveting medical thriller--from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author--Dr. Henry Parsons an unlikely but appealing hero races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees.At an internment camp in Indonesia forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist epidemiologist--travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city... A Russian ??migr?? a woman who has risen to deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare... already-fraying global relations begin to snap one by one in the face of a pandemic... Henry's wife Jill and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta... and the disease slashes across the United States dismantling institutions--scientific religious governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt electrifying one-of-a-kind thriller.(less)