At least in the West, few people alive today have lived through a year quite like 2020—not just the convulsions but the isolation, not just the trauma but the tedium. Less violent than a war, more protracted than a natural disaster, covid-19 has been deadly, disorientating and unfamiliar. But although living memory has been of limited help as a guide to how to cope, the memories of others, and their imaginations, have proved useful to millions of readers.
The Economist: The literature of lockdown
A man reads a book while standing on line for free COVID-19 anti-body testing at Bellevue Hospital on August 19, 2020 in New York.
