Having just been lauded as a finalist for the National Book Award, David Quammen comes to Elk River Books on Thursday, Dec. 15, to discuss his new book, Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus.

Called a “must-read” in a starred Publisher’s Weekly review, and “a scientific detective story” by Booklist, Breathless tells the story of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a distinct difference from other works on this topic: “Breathless is the story of the virus itself – its murky origins, its fast evolution, and its fierce journey through the human population as scientists across the globe raced to understand the virus, contain it, and fight its spread."