Hope Book Club, Ep 26: The Pandemic Edition

These cracking books all feature a plague of some description, but they’ll also make you feel a whole lot better about the current crisis.

Hamnet by Maggie O Farrell tells the story of Shakespeare’s 11-year-old-son who died during a plague. But, the book takes the focus off the famous bard and puts the spotlight firmly on his wife, Agnes.

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, follows a nomadic group of actors who have survived a devastating flu pandemic that wiped out civilisation as we know it. This futuristic book will make you strangely nostalgic for the life you’re currently living.

And, Caroline Overington’s The Cuckoo’s Cry is a domestic thriller set in Sydney during the current COVID-19 crisis.

Plus, hot on the heels of winning 2020’s Christian Book of the Year award, we discuss Natasha Moore’s philosophical new release The Pleasures of Pessimism.

It’s the pandemic edition of the Hope Book Club podcast – because the pandemic life just got better with a book!