A real thinker of a book - it's not the kind of one you can 'check-out' while you're reading, but Mandel has grabbed another pandemic novel and turned it into something kind of magic. Naomi Aldermann is quoted on the front as calling it 'comforting' and even with the slightly horrific nature of the plot - it is oddly comforting. Elegant, slow and like being wrapped in an intellectual blanket.