Amit Goenka

It feels almost spooky to read Pale Rider in 2021. I live in Mumbai, India which has been the epicenter of the Covid19 in both the 1st and the 2nd wave of the Pandemic. Throughout the reading one can't help but get the feeling that the author Laura Spinney almost knew about the impending disaster happening in the near future and that she was trying to wake up humanity and warn us about it. Alas! The book was published only in 2017 and maybe it did not give enough time to the world leaders to realise that a similar catastrophe was upon us sooner then later. Bill Gates also tried to do what he could to bring more awareness on the issue almost to avail. A lot of thinkers have blamed Hubris for the way we humans behave when it comes to such incidents. And the fact that such Pandemics happen on an average every 100 years (as per historical data) does not help as most people alive after 100 years have not had to face such a scenario. Also one cannot expect leaders across the world to spend valuable mind space and money on something which may or may not occur even for the next 10 to 20 years. Pandemics like this come without warning and like a tsunami and travels across the globe within days Laura Spinney has does a splendid job of covering all aspects of the Pandemic