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For more information, contact:
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—THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NOW IN PAPERBACK!—
FINALLY, THE WORLD WILL COME TO KNOW
THE TRUE STORY
OF HOW DANGEROUSLY CLOSE THE HUMAN
RACE CAME TO ITS DEMISE
WORLD WAR Z
An Oral History of the Zombie War
By Max Brooks
“Zombies are among us — turn on your television if you don’t believe it. But, Brooks reassures us
in this all-too-realistic novel, even today human fighters are hunting down the leftovers, and we’re
winning. Brooks seeds his mockumentary with smart nods to the chains of cause and effect that
spring from today’s headlines. A literate, ironic, strangely tasty treat.”
— (Starred review) Kirkus Reviews
“A horror fan’s version of Studs Terkel’s The Good War (1984). The interviews and personal
accounts capture the universal fear of the collapse of society. Horror fans won’t be disappointed;
like George Romero’s Dead trilogy, World War Z is another milestone in the zombie mythology.”
— Booklist
“The novel is hard to put down. The subtle, and not so subtle, jabs at various contemporary
politicians and policies are an added bonus.” — Publishers Weekly
“Provocative and enthralling, World War Z is science fiction at its best. Brooks imbues the story
with a deep sense of humanity, a keen appreciation for detail, and a haunting perspective on the
ability—or not—of our governments, militaries, and other institutions to deal with worst-case
scenarios.” —Bradley Graham, Washington Post military affairs correspondent
“Max Brooks has charted the folly of a disaster response based solely on advanced technologies
and brute force in this step-by-step guide to what happened in the Zombie War. Brooks’ account
of the path to recovery and reconstruction after the war is fascinating. World War Z provides us
with a starting point, at least, a basic blueprint from which to build a popular understanding of
how, when, and why such a disaster came to be, and how small groups and individuals survived.”
— Jeb Weisman, Ph.D., Director of Strategic Technologies, National Center for Disaster Preparedness
“After a heated bidding war with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, Brad Pitt’s Plan B walks off
with the rights to Max Brooks’ tome World War Z. Plan B won out picking up the property for a
reported six against seven figures.” — The Hollywood Reporter
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The end was near. Zombies were taking over. They were infiltrating ever corner the world. No neutral
ground existed, no nation was secure, and we were in serious danger of becoming extinct — overrun by
hordes of the living dead.
WORLD WAR Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Three Rivers Press, October 16, 2007), is an
recounting of these apocalyptic and horrifying years that will make sure we never forget how close we
came to total annihilation. Told from the perspective of numerous survivors from all over the world,
from Denver to South Africa, Sydney to Yonkers, Malibu to India, WORLD WAR Z captures the
sacrifices and, toward the end, the ingenuity of our race to defend and save our cities, towns, and
villages from a plague that seemed virtually impossible to stop.
Brooks tells a moving story of courage and survival and gives us insight into the key military strategies
that helped us take our world back. To this day, controversy and conversation still revolves around
some key issues that WORLD WAR Z addresses such as:
-
How the Walking Plague was initially covered up by corrupt governments
Why the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services downplayed the Great Panic
A zealous American President’s mistake in putting his party’s needs in an election year ahead of the
safety of his people
While WORLD WAR Z does remind us of our past mistakes and the vulnerability of the human race, it
also serves as a reminder that the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as the
“living dead” is the human factor. WORLD WAR Z also warns us not to let our guard down, to be ever
vigilant, and to learn from the mistakes made in the past. Indeed, as Brooks records from a survivor in
Burlington, VT: “The numbers [of zombies] are declining, thank heavens, but it doesn’t mean people
should let down their guard. We’re still at war, and until every trace is sponged and purged and if need
be, blasted from the surface of the earth, everybody’s still gotta pitch in and do their job. Be nice if that
was the lesson people took from all this misery. We’re all in this together, so pitch in and do your job.”
WORLD WAR Z is Max Brooks’ life work. Logging countless hours of travel to capture and preserve
first-hand experiences from the Dark Years, Brooks records in great detail the one aspect that has been
neglected in all previous retellings of this war: the extraordinary job we did in coming together to thwart
our extinction and reign triumphant.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Since the end of official hostilities, numerous attempts have been made to document the Zombie
War. WORLD WAR Z is the definitive account of the technological, military, social, economic,
and political details as told through survivors’ stories of how civilization went from the brink of
extinction to a universal victory against the living dead.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MAX BROOKS is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Zombie Survival Guide and
World War Z. Max Brooks’ previous book, The Zombie Survival Guide, formed the core of the world’s
civilian survival manuals during the Zombie War. Mr. Brooks subsequently spent years traveling to
every part of the globe in order to conduct the face-to-face interviews that have been incorporated into
this present publication.
WORLD WAR Z
An Oral History of the Zombie War
By Max Brooks
Published by Three Rivers Press
On sale: October, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-307-34661-2 * Price: $14.95 * Paperback * 352 pages