Karl Taro Greenfeld Livres

In a wickedly funny dystopian parody set in a financially apocalyptic future America, you are your credit score. Extreme wealth inequality has birthed a class of have-nothings known as Subprimes, whose poor credit ratings render them unemployable. Jobless and asset-less, they’ve faced foreclosures and wander the globally warmed American wasteland in search of day labor and a place to park their battered SUVs. The narrative follows two families navigating this harsh reality, with one Subprime family migrating east in search of a better life. They soon join a slightly better-off writer and his family, who are also struggling. Their journey leads them to a small settlement of Subprimes attempting to create an agrarian utopia on a foreclosed exurb. However, their fragile stability is threatened when job creators target their land for shale oil extraction. Amidst the chaos, a hero emerges—a woman on a motorcycle, suspiciously lacking a credit score, who may hold the key to salvation. This novel offers a darkly comedic exploration of paradise lost and found, the implications of credit, economic policy, and the essence of family, all while reflecting on the current state of America and its potential future.

Was the 2003 SARS outbreak a warning of deadly epidemics to come? Acclaimed author and journalist Karl Taro Greenfeld was on the spot when the disease was discovered. His taut, thriller-like account tells the compelling story of a lethal microbe that learnt to jump between species - from animal to human - with brutal efficiency, killing a large number of its victims and terrifying millions around the world. China Syndrome takes us on a gripping ride from the bedside of one of the first Chinese victims, via cutting-edge labs where the researchers race to identify the new illness, to conference rooms at the World Health Organization as officials desperately try to determine the true extent of the epidemic - despite a scandalous cover-up by the Chinese government. As Greenfeld reveals, the outbreak of SARS - and, now, the convergence of a deadly strain of Avian Flu - is part of a pattern of evidence suggesting that the next pandemic will also emerge from Asia. It could be more virulent and difficult to contain that anything we've ever encountered. And it's long overdue. Is humanity ready?