Table 1.

A subjective collection of potential books covering topics relevant during times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Titles	Authors	Themes	Commentaries
The Plague (La Peste)	Albert Camus	Epidemic Plague	The characters of La Peste are lucky to be able to circulate in Oran, in Algeria during the ongoing plague Camus reminds us that it's important to have moments when you recharge your batteries and regain your strength at the heart of the plague
Love in the Time of Cholera	Gabriel García Márquez	Epidemic Cholera	Cholera epidemic forms the backdrop to a doomed love story, with an analogy being made between the epidemic and amorous passion. The cholera randomly strikes at its pleasure like the rules of love and chance, sneaking into the body, and nourishing the same symptoms
Death in Venice	Thomas Man	Epidemic	The author describes a process which is divided into several stages: 1. Asian origin of the epidemic −> 2. Arrival of the epidemic in Europe −> 3. Identification of the “zero patient” −> 4. Transmission of the epidemic −> 5. Events −> 6. Measures taken by the authorities −> 7. Reactions from the public −> 8. Implications (departure or confinement)
The Perfume	Patrick Süskin	Olfaction	Loss of smell can be the first symptom of COVID. Süskind has put an anti-hero at the center of his action. Ironically, he throws Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a Parisian orphan, into the world of smells. He can perceive odors from afar and dissect them. He's a stranger with a unique talent and a murderous idea. Grenouille wants to create the largest of all perfumes to finally be part of the world
Geopolitics of the Mosquito (Géopolitique du Moustique)	Erik Orsena	Infections Yellow Fever	The precariousness experienced by survivors of Yellow Fever epidemics in the early Twentieth Century is explored and how it incited self-destructive behaviors such as gambling, drugs and prostitution
Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy	Louisa May Alcott	Epidemic Scarlet fever	Scarlet fever is caused by group A streptococcus, transmitted through the air and most often from an affected child (a sore throat, inflammation of the tonsils, and small scarlet red spots). Treatment is based on antibiotics One child character died from complications which was contracted after she visits the sick children of an impoverished neighbors
The Lady of the Camellias	Alexandre Dumas	Epidemic Tuberculosis	Climbing the ranks of prostitution in record time, the heroine, passed in a few months from misery to fortune. Pulmonary tuberculosis had a venereal connotation in the nineteenth century The novel was then adapted for the stage and performed at the Vaudeville theater before inspiring Giuseppe Verdi to play the character of Violetta in La Traviata
The Masque of the Red Death	Edgar Poe	Epidemic	Poe highlights the principle of the equality of all humans in the face of death. Prince Prospero, the main character favored the knights and ladies of his court who resolved to barricade themselves against the sudden impulses of external despair. This protectionism operated to the detriment of the people kept outside the walls Poe draws a distinction between masque and mask Masque as expressing a dance, a masquerade, a farandole composed of masked characters
The Scarlet Plague	Jack London	Epidemic	Jack London speaks of the carefree people spared by the disease as they watch it spread to other regions, never imagining that it will 1 day reach their own
The Stand	Stephen King	Epidemic	Stephen King dedicates several chapters of his long novel to the transmission of the virus, by characters who do not know that they are already sick
Station Eleven	Emily St. John Mandel	Epidemic	The author describes the collapse of our societies in the face of a lightning flu
The Epidemic (L'epidemia)	Alberto Moravia	Epidemic	The book is a satirical text on fascism
The Horseman on the Roof	Jean Giono	Epidemic Cholera	The hero, an Italian hussar from Piedmont, is on the run after winning a deadly duel. His tribulations lead him to Manosque, in Provence, where a cholera epidemic is raging. Pursued by the authorities, who believe him guilty of poisoning the city's fountains, he wanders over the roofs of abandoned houses. Armed with inexplicable immunity and noble devotion, he put himself at the service of a few convicts in the hope of saving them
The Quarantine (La Quarantaine)	Le Clézio	Quarantine Smallpox	On a ship, passengers develop symptoms of smallpox. All are forced to land on Flat Island, a volcanic haven in the Indian Ocean, where they will have to remain in quarantine for an indefinite period. Le Clézio reports in La Quarantaine the experience of forced isolation, on an island where colonization separates Europeans from Indian immigrants hired to work in the colonies
In a Perfect World	Laura Kasischke	Epidemic Influenza	The epidemic story is a tool to paint a vitriolic portrait of the American middle class
Nemesis	Philip Roth	Epidemic Poliomyelitis	Philip Roth peels at the emotions aroused by the fury of an epidemic
Peloponnesian War	Thucydide	Epidemic Plague	The plague of Athens devastates Greece and describes the anarchy which is spreading in the city with the disease
The Last Man	Mary Shelley	Plague Pandemic	The author asks her readers to imagine a world in which only humans are becoming extinct. Attacked by a new, unstoppable plague, the human population collapses within a few years. Other species flourish. A rapidly decreasing band of survivors watches as the world begins to return to a state of conspicuous natural beauty, a global garden of Eden
A world without female (Il mondo senza donne, Italian)	Virgilio Martini	Unspecified virus	Conceived in the secrecy of a laboratory, at the beginning of the twenty first century, by a club of American homosexuals who have sworn the disappearance of women, the virus attacks only the weak sex, between puberty and menopause, and mows down its first victims in Haiti. Over time, the demographics are collapsing
All Fools' Day	Edmund Cooper	Radiations Mental illness	Only the eccentrics, the obsessed, creative artist, fanatics of various kinds and psychopaths seem to be immune and survive this mysterious radiation
The Ninth Day (Le neuvieme jour, French)	Hervé Bazin	Influenza “super-flu”	This describes a society which flirts between the benefits of technical and technological progress and the dangers, which allows a reflection on science and the new role of men
The Eyes of Darkness	Dean Koontz	Unspecified virus	Dean Koontz novel describes a killer virus developed in a Chinese bioweapon lab called “Wuhan-400.” First published in 1981 under a pseudonym, the virus, originally produced in Russian, became Chinese in a 1996, post-cold war revision of the book
Plague	Graham Masterton	Epidemic	Department of Public Health support the thesis of the ephemeral phenomenon, but the situation is deteriorating. It is a very contagious fatal disease, the virulence of which is increased 10-fold by an unknown mutation Little by little, the city sinks into chaos. The American authorities use radical methods to contain the epidemic
Pandemic 1918	Catharine Arnold	Pandemic Influenza	Rapid spread of the disease as infected populations were shifted in the wake of the war, the vicious nature of the “second wave” of the disease Spanish flu was that it often struck the healthiest rather than the elderly, young or weak