FEVERS, FEUDS, AND DIAMONDS Ebola and the Ravages of History

Pete Cross does an excellent job narrating this timely, hard-edged audiobook, which takes on the Ebola epidemic in West Africa but has relevance to today's COVID-19 pandemic. He reads crisply and is equally adept at the historical, biographical, and anthropological parts of this story. Cross's controlled pace and reportorial voice work for revelations of medical deserts, human tragedy and occasional triumph. Paul Farmer, the Harvard epidemiologist who is famous for his work around the world with Partners in Health, has written a true and sad account that gives listeners the gnawing sense that in pandemics and epidemics care should always triumph over control and that "stuff, staff, space, and systems" go a long way toward managing the sick. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2021]