World War Z
“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years. Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanit
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about World War Z
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Twelve years after the Zombie War, an unnamed researcher for a UN Postwar Commission travels the world recording survivor accounts.
Almost not at all. The 2013 Brad Pitt film keeps only the title and zombie premise. The novel is a global oral history with no central protagonist.
It is more unsettling than scary. The horror comes from the geopolitical and societal collapse details rather than jump scares.
World War Z was written by Max Brooks, published in 2006 by Fen.
World War Z is 422 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, World War Z takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
World War Z is a standalone novel by Max Brooks, not part of a series.
World War Z is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.