"The Plague" by Kevin Chong

“When Kevin Chong wrote The Plague, the premise seemed unbelievable. He couldn’t have known that only two years later, COVID-19 would strong-arm the world into a standstill, and the city that he described so clearly in his novel would be undertaking an extended period of mass isolation and quarantine.” (The Tyee)

In 2018, Chong’s novel, The Plague was published. It’s a retelling of Albert Camus’ 1947 novel of the same name. The original story takes place in Oran, Algeria, whereas Chong set his tale in Vancouver, B.C. Upon publication, the book received rave reviews, with papers like the Vancouver Sun calling it, “a successful experiment in storytelling and an homage to one of the 20^th century’s major novels.”