2020

Get in the xigxag app
This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.
Pre-order Buy Now £{{ price }}
How does xigxag pricing work?

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Renowned sociologist and best-selling author Eric Klinenberg turns a year of devastation into a year of revelation in this wise, deeply researched and cathartic account of the pandemic.

What unites us? What divides us? What do we value? Sociologist Eric Klinenberg had been studying what crises reveal about societies for over two decades when his home of New York became the deadliest hot spot of the global pandemic. In this book he tells the deeply reported stories of dseven ordinary people trying to survive at the epicentre of the crisis, and combines them with data gathered from around the world to provide unprecedented insights into what societies are made of, why they come together or fall apart, and how they shape our lives.

'Compellingly reveals what the pandemic laid bare about our culture, our institutions, and ourselves' Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted

'A book that's at once intimate and far-ranging, that reveals the importance of social solidarity and also its fragility' Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

'A gripping, deeply moving account' SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE, author of The Song of the Cell

©2024 Eric Klinenberg (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

  • A gripping, deeply moving account of a signal year in modern history, told through the stories of seven ordinary people trying to survive at the epicentre of the crisis. Klinenberg’s narrative shows how the legacy of that year continues to shape us, our politics and our personal lives

    Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies

  • Elegantly written and well researched . . . filled with impressive detail

    Economist

  • A sociological investigation of an unforgettable year, 2020 compellingly reveals what the pandemic laid bare about our culture, our institutions, and ourselves

    Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted

  • A book that’s at once intimate and far-ranging, that reveals the importance of social solidarity and also its fragility

    Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

  • By bridging the gaps between individual, community and population, [Klinenberg] shows how pandemics alter society and exacerbate inequality. He follows the threads that connect the individual lived experience to the national phenomenon

    New Statesman

More from the same

Author

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.