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Biological War

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What to expect

There is an invisible weapon among us.
By the time you know you are a victim, it has turned you into a killer.

A compelling, fast-paced, ticking clock non-fiction thriller from the author of the bestselling Nuclear War: A Scenario.

A lab accident, a bio-attack, a global pandemic, and the collapse of human society. In this explosive new book, based on dozens of new interviews with experts with high-level political, governmental, medical, and military responsibility, Annie Jacobsen examines this very scenario.

There is no mushroom cloud, no shock wave or blast. Instead, the scenario that could end the world as we know it begins with something so small and malicious, that when used for evil, only evil can result.

This is what could happen; a roadmap to the hours, days, and weeks following the release of a biological agent, that serves as the most essential, forward-looking journalism in preparation for urgent societal upheaval.

'A persuasive and unnerving argument' The New Yorker

'Read this book. It is a better briefing on the problem than the one we recived in Downing Street six years ago.' James Phillips, Spectator

'It's gripping and very, very scary how this scenario plays out.' Transfer Orbit

© Annie Jacobsen 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

Very effective . . . you might argue that her books on nuclear and biological warfare establish a new genre we might call New Fear Unlocked . . . all too credible . . . the author's timing is impeccable.
Sunday Times, Book of the Week
Read this book. It is a better briefing on the problem than the one we received in Downing Street six years ago.
Spectator
Energetic, detailed and disturbing . . . an engrossing, plausible book
The Economist
A persuasive and unnerving argument.
New Yorker
Graphic and sobering . . . Jacobsen is back with another scenario that promises to be even more ghastly and perversely thrilling than [Nuclear War: A Scenario].
Observer
A scrupulously realistic book about the inconceivable…This is important work...Biological War is an indictment of the weapons programs that created our discomfiting reality, and of a leadership that has allowed it to continue.
New Yorker
This book moves like a meteor… Biological War is a heavily researched book about contagious and potentially civilization-ending pathogens…That so many were willing to talk to her, and have their names affixed to this book, indicates the esteem in which she is held.
New York Times
Intriguing . . . Jacobsen is a first rate researcher
Irish Independent
A compelling and deeply unsettling examination of how biological warfare could shape the next global catastrophe . . . Biological War is difficult to put down, but it is even harder to stop thinking about once finished.
Literary Review
Horrifying . . . a good read
New Scientist
Author Annie Jacobsen
Narrator Annie Jacobsen
Duration 11 hours and 14 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781529967944
Format Audiobook
Publisher Transworld
Genre Chemical and biological weapons, Military and defence strategy, Modern warfare, Theory of warfare and military science, War and defence operations
Availability AU, GB, IE

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