Edna Bonhomme—A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

A History of the World in Six Plagues

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN SIX PLAGUES:
HOW CONTAGION, CLASS, AND CAPTIVITY SHAPED US,
FROM CHOLERA TO COVID-19
Edna Bonhomme
Atria (Simon & Schuster), March 11, 2025
Hardcover, $30, eBook, $14.99
Unabridged Audio download: $24.99, Audio CD: $39.99
Hardcover ISBN-13: 9781982197834
eBook ASIN: B0C7RNBT98
Audio book ASIN: B0D67GGWL
Audio CD ISBN-13: 978-1797185415

Bonhomme reports:

At the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, like many others, I was confined to my home, feeling anxious and uncertain about the pandemic and its potential impact on me and my loved ones. The year 2020 was devastating. I became fixated on reading medical reports about the novel coronavirus.

The symptoms were alarming: loss of smell, shortness of breath, loss of taste, wheezing, a sensation that one’s lungs could collapse, and the threat of premature death. I took every precaution to avoid the new plague and focused on the one thing I could control—curating my social life to remain socially distant.

Edna Bonhomme
Photo by Carleen Coulter

Knowing I wasn’t alone, I turned to my training in biology, public health, and the history of science. I began rereading accounts of past pandemics and observing how people coped with confinement. When I contacted my agent, I expressed my desire to explore the most vulnerable individuals in history and how they managed to survive when taken captive or found ways to help each other endure.

I developed a book proposal based on my secondary research, delving into digital archives and interviewing scientists and everyday individuals in Germany, Britain, the United States, and beyond. Through memoir and reportage, I examined how humans navigate their health when feeling confined by larger forces.

Although I read about outbreaks dating back to antiquity, I chose to concentrate on six disease crises from the nineteenth century to the present—cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish flu, sleeping sickness, Ebola, and COVID-19. The book was a labor of love grounded in scientific research but also drew insights from literary giants such as Virginia Woolf, Octavia Butler, and Charles Baudelaire.

Overall, I found that when confronted with a new or enduring epidemic, individuals engage in a constant negotiation between the real pain they experience and their instinct for survival. Pandemics possess a life of their own, not only because of their biological characteristics but also due to human responses. We have witnessed something significant that COVID-19 has exposed—how history can serve as a dark mirror reflecting the present.

Contact Info:

Edna Bonhomme, info@ednabonhomme.com, https://www.ednabonhomme.com/
Substack: Mobile Fragments
Twitter/X: @jacobinoire
Instagram: Bonhomme
Bluesky: Edna Bonhomme, PhD
Book: A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19
Publicist: Shida Carr, Shida.Carr@simonandschuster.com
Agent: Ian Bonaparte, IBonaparte@janklow.com

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Banner image adapted from original photo by Edna Bonhomme.

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

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