World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Prepare to be entranced by this addictively readable oral history of the great war between humans and zombies.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the pandemic.
 
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

“Will spook you for real.”The New York Times Book Review
 
“Possesses more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles. Think Mad Max meets The Hot Zone. . . . It’s Apocalypse Now, pandemic-style. Creepy but fascinating.”USA Today
 
“Will grab you as tightly as a dead man’s fist. A.”Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick 
 
“Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds radio broadcast . . . This is action-packed social-political satire with a global view.”Dallas Morning News

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Published Oct 16, 2007

342 pages

Average rating: 7.58

161 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

CheriF
Sep 25, 2025
6/10 stars
I enjoyed the production. It was interesting. That's about all I have to say.
wardbunch
Mar 26, 2025
10/10 stars
Great audio book version. Loved the various actors doing the voice parts.
District_of_meh
Jan 23, 2025
10/10 stars
Highly recommend, fun read!!

I enjoyed the non-fiction-style delivery of fictional subject material. It’s written like a “lessons learned” academic manual of how humans survived a zombie apocalypse. I had a lot of “Well, shoot, I didn’t even THINK about that!” moments, because, y’know, I spend a lot of time thinking about zombies...

It has loose ties to the movie of the same name (so don’t be deterred if you didn’t love the movie.)
glinglin
Dec 12, 2024
6/10 stars
Pretty fun little zombie novel.
BellaElena
Nov 05, 2024
5/10 stars
It’s cool, but don’t read it if you are tired !!

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