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COVID-19 Fiction

Maureen Brook

/ Feb 28, 2022

Many writers write about what they know, the human experience, and the state of the world. There can be no doubt that the last couple of years, due to COVID-19 and the lockdown experience, have seen the world change almost overnight. Inevitably many novels have been published recently which have the pandemic and its effects either as a backdrop or at the forefront of the story.

Life Without Children: stories Roddy Doyle
A book of ten short stories all reflecting life for various individuals trying to navigate life during or post lockdown. Life touches everyone in the same way, but living under lockdown it changes people in a unique way. The stories are about various scenarios, love and marriage, children and family, with some people questioning what life is all about. Told with empathy and humour and the vital importance of human connection.

56 days Catherine Ryan Howard
A different sort of crime thriller, with lockdown as a setting. Ciara and David meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin, the same week COVID-19 hits Ireland. Less than two weeks after their relationship begins, and with lockdown looming, David asks Ciara to move into his apartment. Both have their reasons for wanting to hide away from the pre-lockdown world and the story is told from either David's or Ciara's viewpoint. Thirty-five days after the couple move in together detectives find a body in the bath with no signs of any other person having inhabited the building.

The Fell Sarah Moss
Kate and her son Matt have been in lockdown for two weeks when the urge to get outside for a walk and fresh air overtakes Kate and she heads for the moors in the Peak district, UK. Kate only intends to have a short walk but Matt soon realises she is missing. Kate falls and hurts herself and a mountain rescue operation is undertaken. The story is told from the viewpoint of Matt, a neighbour who saw Kate leave, and divorced dad Rob, who is part of the rescue operation. There is much reflection on the effects of lockdown and pandemic fear on the individual, and how much life has changed in the last couple of years.

Wish You Were Here Jodi Picoult
Diana O'Toole feels she has her life mapped out. She has a successful career and is convinced her boyfriend, Finn, a surgeon, is going to propose on their forthcoming holiday in the Galapagos Islands. It's early 2020 and on the eve of their departure Finn announces that all leave at the hospital where he works has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and persuades Diana to go on holiday on her own. Diana arrives on Galapagos as it is going into quarantine and lockdown, leaving her stranded, her luggage is lost, she cannot speak the language, and WiFi is patchy. In the next few weeks Diana's endurance is tested to the limit and she begins to question her previous values and changes her perspective on life.

The Cellist Daniel Silva
Book 21 in the Gabriel Allon series. Told against the backdrop of the world-wide lockdown in 2020, Israeli secret agent and art restorer, Gabriel Allon, has his work cut out for him chasing the baddies of the world. The story is very topical, including a deadly nerve agent, the 2016 US election and its threat to democracy, and a vengeful Russian president.

False Witness Karin Slaughter
Leigh Collier is an up-and-coming defence lawyer who is co-parenting a teenage daughter with her estranged husband during the pandemic in the U.S. Leigh is harbouring a secret from her childhood and when she is requested to take on a case of rape she realises that the person whom she is required to defend is aware of her childhood history. Is Leigh being blackmailed for an acquittal? The only person who can help Leigh is her younger sister, Callie, who is part of the childhood trauma.