The Day of Resurrection

In the depths of winter, a small plane crashes in the Alps. As the spring snows melt, a new virus that should not exist spreads with the meltwater. At first it manifests only as a mild "flu," yet it spreads worldwide with astonishing speed and a terrifying death rate. Within just three months, mass deaths occur around the world, transportation breaks down, governments fail, and international suspicion and rivalry make joint epidemic control an empty phrase; roughly three and a half billion people die in a very short time, and human civilization stands on the brink of extinction. An Antarctic research base, geographically isolated, becomes a refuge for a few survivors; some ten thousand people, scientists and soldiers from many countries, are forced to rebuild order in an extreme environment. Yet beyond the virus lies a heavier threat: as the nuclear powers lose their control mechanisms in the collapse, automatic retaliation systems and nuclear missiles push humanity toward a "second death." A handful of survivors, including a geologist, must risk crossing the dead North American continent to stop a nuclear war before an earthquake triggers a false alarm. The novel unfolds through a multinational, multi-threaded ensemble perspective, interwoven with extensive detail on virology, molecular biology, marine engineering, and nuclear weapons, bringing epidemics, technological abuse, national interest, and the light and dark of human nature onto the stage together. Written in 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympics, the work warns with a cool hand: humanity may become the first species to exterminate itself.