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Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk’s Nights Of Plague is a deeply detailed work of historical fiction, one he began writing years before Covid. The setting is imaginary—Mingheria, a Christian- and Muslim-populated island in the shrinking Ottoman empire of 1901—but the hallmarks of a deadly outbreak ring true: the slow and inept government response; the rumors taken as fact; the deep suspicion of science. And the seemingly impossible task of getting everyone to agree on best steps, much less take them. “Quarantine is a labor of unity and collaboration,” insists Bonkowski, the sultan’s scientist charged with containing the disease in Mingheria. Optimistic that people will abide by restrictions for the sake of public safety, naive Bonkowski is quickly assassinated, accused of bringing disease to the island. The search for the truth behind the murder, along with Mingheria’s fight for survival, carries the narrative through nearly 700 pages. (For his efforts, Pamuk remains under investigation in his native Turkey, accused of insulting Kemal Atatürk and the Turkish flag in​​ Nights Of Plague. Politics is its own kind of pestilence.)